[On Tuesday, August 26, Emmanuel Macron personally answered the letter Benjamin Netanyahu sent him on August 17, in which the Israeli prime minister expressed concern about "the alarming rise of antisemitism in France." Here is Macron's full response.]

"Dear Prime Minister,

I received your letter dated 17 August, which you decided to release before I even received it. That is why my response, similarly, will be released to bring clarity to our debates. For my part, I decided to inform you in advance, and I will wait until you have read it, as a mark of basic courtesy.

The fight against antisemitism must not be weaponized and will not fuel any discord between Israel and France.

One of the first things I did after I was elected was to officially endorse, on 16 July 2017, in the tragic setting of the Vél' d'Hiv stadium, the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) which condemns anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, and on that day, you were keen to stand beside me. It was the first time that a President of the French Republic had gone so far, and I fully stand by that step. Protecting France's Jewish citizens from the rise in antisemitism has been an absolute priority of mine from day one. This is France's responsibility, and all government services are mobilized to that end. It must not be the subject of manipulation amid the politicization of a conflict that is not France's but that is affecting its national cohesion and the security of its citizens.

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