By Joshua Arnold

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that “France will recognize the State of Palestine” (or so X translated his words into English). Such recognition is the only way to secure “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” he insisted. “There is no alternative.” While Macron may safely indulge foolish fantasies from the safe distance of 2,000 miles, Israel must confront conditions as they really exist.

The basic blunder lying beneath Macron’s pronouncement is that he seeks to recognize a Palestinian state that does not exist. A “state” is a government that exercises sovereignty over a certain people within a certain territory. The only Palestinian entity that fits that description (or did, from 2006 to 2023) is Hamas in Gaza. But Macron insisted on the “demilitarization of Hamas” (again, translated), suggesting that Hamas would lose its power in Gaza.

In fact, Macron announced his recognition of Palestinian statehood in a letter to Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), thus implying that he recognizes the PA as the rightful government of Palestine. The problem is that the dysfunctional PA hardly has the territory, people, or even authority to qualify as a state. The word to describe recognizing something that doesn’t exist is hallucination.

Indeed, Macron effectively admits that the alleged Palestinian state is a figment of his imagination. “We must build the State of Palestine,” he urges, and “ensure its viability.” Ah, so the state does not exist now and cannot exist on its own. Furthermore, he declares, “we must … ensure that, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East.” With this line, Macron even projected his own desires onto the PA. The PA has never agreed to demilitarize or recognize the state of Israel, and it has repeatedly refused to accept deals that would offer it a state alongside Israel.

By re-introducing an approach to Middle East peace that has already proven unworkable so many times before, Macron leaves himself open to the charge that he is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” By presenting this tried-and-failed strategy as the only alternative, Macron exhibits narrow-minded blinders that seem to function as an irrational article of faith — not a trait of great statesmen.

“I’m not surprised that something like that would come from France, from Macron,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “I’ve never been a two-state solution advocate because … I just don’t think it’s feasible right now, as demonstrated on October 7th. You can’t divide Israel and put … as a close neighbor, a group that wants to eliminate their neighbor.”

War in Gaza

Macron’s solution to end the war in Gaza is similarly short-sighted. “We must immediately implement a ceasefire, release all hostages, and provide massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” he demanded. What does he think Israel has been trying to do for the past two years? “The international community, with these types of stunts … are not helping bring this conflict in Gaza to a conclusion,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.

The primary sticking point is that Hamas refuses to release the hostages, and a permanent ceasefire would remove any leverage Israel has to force them to do so. The secondary sticking point is that Hamas routinely robs aid convoys, preventing it from reaching the people of Gaza. The goals Macron articulated align with Israel’s war objectives, but he imagines he could achieve them by snapping his fingers. Snap away, Mr. Macron, and Godspeed!

Rewarding Terrorists

Unfortunately, despite tacitly endorsing Israel’s cause and condemning that of Hamas, Macron’s actions only serve to bolster the cause of Hamas by driving home the point that terror attacks on Israel will be rewarded with greater international recognition for Palestine. “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace,” responded Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. “It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz congratulated Macron on awarding “a prize for the Hamas murderers and rapists that committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

Macron’s “announcement this week compounded a problem and made things much worse,” agreed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. “We’ve been working on some very touchy issues between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and we were not there yet. We were moving in the direction. And what he did this week blew it all off the table.”

Huckabee had nothing but mockery for Macron. “What he should do is just give a part of the French Riviera” to the PA, “because he never said where this nation needs to be,” Huckabee joked. “If one nation can just declare another place on the earth to be a state, then I think it would be fitting if the U.K. [declared] France to be a British colony — why not?”

The French are likely touchy about Huckabee calling their sovereignty into question, as any nation-state would be. But why does France think its recognition of a nonexistent Palestinian state within Israel’s borders is any less offensive to Israel? “A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Response

In fact, the Israeli Knesset did take offense. They responded to Macron on Wednesday by passing a (nonbinding) resolution calling for the annexation of Judea and Samaria in a rare bipartisan vote of 71-3.

“When Europe and other areas of the world decide they’re going to start telling Israel that [they’re] going to let Hamas stay in Gaza, or that [they’re] going to declare unilaterally a Palestinian state, the reaction in Israel is not to surrender,” Huckabee observed. “What happened in the Knesset this week was a message that should be understood not only in the Palestinian Authority … but it ought to be a message to the Europeans: that, when you go out there, and you start pushing Israel to surrender, their response is going to be the same.”

Negotiation Cooldown

Effects from Macron’s decision even cascaded to derail the very ceasefire negotiations he endorsed. After aggressive new demands from Hamas, American and Israeli diplomats in Qatar packed up shop and headed home. White House envoy Steve Witkoff complained that Hamas’s response “shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire,” leading the U.S. to seek “alternative options” to bring the hostages home.

“Hamas has never been serious about a peace agreement. They’ve never been serious about relenting on their hatred of Jews and Israel,” reflected Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) on “Washington Watch.” “All they’re doing is playing for time. It’s why they took the hostages as leverage. They don’t plan on giving them up.”

“That is the reality of who Hamas is,” he added. “The sooner we understand and recognize and acknowledge and accept that, I think the better off we’ll be. While I would like a different outcome, it’s simply not realistic with the ideology of this barbaric, religious, anti-West, anti-Israel, anti-Christianity group of people.”

As far as Israel is concerned, talks “did not collapse,” reported Axios. Negotiators merely withdrew to “shake up” negotiations and put additional pressure on Hamas. Of course, it helps Israel’s standing with the Trump administration if it maintains a posture that is open to negotiation. But the prospect for a long-term peace with Hamas — or any replacement Palestinian state within the borders of Israel — is slim to none. Even for the short-term, the prospects for peace are severely damaged by silly stunts like the one played by President Macron.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.