It has been a bruising few days for Emmanuel Macron. It began last Friday when he gave an interview to the BBC at the Élysée palace at the conclusion of a peace forum in Paris. In unusually forthright rhetoric, the president said there was ‘no justification’ for Israel’s bombing of Gaza, which was killing ‘these babies, these ladies, these old people’. He added: ‘There is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.’ He also reiterated a call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Macron’s words drew a swift and sharp response from Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the president’s focus should be on condemning Hamas. ‘The crimes that Hamas [is] committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world.’
Deft diplomacy has never been Macron’s strong suit and since Hamas attacked Israel he has looked increasingly befuddled
Two days after his BBC interview, Macron contacted Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, in what the Times of Israel described as a ‘damage control’ call.
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