Israeli ministers railed against French President Emmanuel Macron after he announced Thursday that Paris would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, with several senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition calling for Jerusalem to annex the West Bank in retaliation.
Netanyahu in his own statement said Macron was recognizing a “state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre.”
“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it.”
“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” the premier asserted.
With Israel likely to take punitive measures against France, as it has done to other countries that have recognized a Palestinian state, some ministers argued that the most fitting reaction would be to annex the territory on which Palestinians hope their future state will be located.
“I thank President Macron for providing yet another compelling reason to finally apply Israeli sovereignty over the historic regions of Judea and Samaria, and to definitively abandon the failed concept of establishing a Palestinian terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote in an English-language tweet.
The far-right minister is opposed to granting equal rights to Palestinians living in areas that he wants Israel to annex.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin said annexing the West Bank would be “a response of historical justice to the shameful decision of the French President.”
“The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, and President Macron’s declaration will not change that,” he asserted.
Other ministers issued more tongue-in-cheek responses.
“On behalf of the Government of Israel, here is our response to your recognition of a Palestinian state,” tweeted Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli above a gif of Macron getting slapped around by his wife, Brigitte, as they visited Vietnam in May.
Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman tweeted an AI-generated photo of Macron puckering up with former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, adding the caption, “French kiss.”
Responses among opposition lawmakers were slightly more diverse, with Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh welcoming the move as a “necessary step for a people that has suffered so much.”
Labor MK Gilad Kariv used the opportunity to tear into the government for being more focused on issuing “childish” responses than actually coming up with a long-term strategy to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Now that I’ve seen the competition between government ministers against the French president and how they manage to stick it to him — some even in English — I’m convinced that our government has a strategy and a plan,” the left-wing lawmaker tweeted sarcastically.
“I’m sure that with the resumption of the Knesset’s work, they’ll also push for a law banning the sale of baguettes and croissants in Israel (including in Judea and Samaria), and then we’ll really show [the French] what’s what,” he added.
“A bunch of overgrown babies is running our country,” Kariv lamented.
Others in the opposition joined the coalition’s criticism of Macron’s announcement, with Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman branding it a “prize for terror.”
Notably, Opposition chair Yair Lapid — who has a longstanding relationship with Macron — was mum regarding the issue as of early Friday morning.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett who is planning to re-enter politics through next year’s election published two tweets decrying the move, including one with a video statement that included graphics.
Explaining the decision in a lengthy tweet, Macron said it would help advance a two-state solution, adding that he was moving forward with the move after receiving a series of commitments from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas in a letter to Macron earlier this year pledged to continue conducting reforms of the PA and agreed that the future Palestinian state would be demilitarized and live in peace alongside Israel.
Some opponents of countries unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state maintain that the move is merely symbolic when done without cooperation with Israel, adding that that a Palestinian state can only be the result of negotiations between both sides of the conflict. But supporters of the move say the current Israeli government is uninterested in such talks or in a two-state solution and that the framework can therefore only be advanced through diplomatic pressure.
France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, will become the first major Western country to recognize a Palestinian state, potentially giving greater momentum to a movement so far dominated by smaller nations that are generally more critical of Israel.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a “reckless decision (that) only serves Hamas propaganda.”
“It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th,” he wrote on X.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s deputy Hussein al-Sheikh welcomed the move, saying it “reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state.”
PA rival Hamas also hailed Macron’s pledge, characterizing it as a “positive step in the right direction toward doing justice to our oppressed Palestinian people and supporting their legitimate right to self-determination.”