The logic of recognizing Palestine

Emmanuel Macron's historic commitment to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September provoked in France the divided and often irreconcilable reactions that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always provoked. These reactions are hardly surprising, particularly the criticisms from the right and the far right, some of whom have chosen to align themselves with the positions of the Jewish state, even when it is led by a coalition advocating the annihilation of Gaza, the annexation of the West Bank, and ethnic cleansing.

Since the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, perpetrated by Hamas, these three threats are no longer a dystopian scenario. The first is about to be realized, before our eyes, despite the scandalous closed doors imposed by Israel. The second is advancing inexorably, fueled by a vanguard of extremist settlers supported by an ultranationalist government in which the right wing is increasingly difficult to distinguish from the far right. This same government, finally, is actively working to trivialize the third. Decades of Israeli faits accomplis require it to be taken seriously.

This reminder of the reality and the terrible brutality of the facts is essential to understanding Emmanuel Macron's decision. It is no longer possible to adhere to France's position, namely recognition that would crown a territorial compromise negotiated by both parties. The door to such a prospect has long since closed, and the responsibilities for this are widely shared.

What is at stake now makes it impossible to be satisfied with inaction and procrastination. The fact that other allies of France find it beneficial to renounce this approach does not confer any virtue on it. It may already be too late to save the two-state solution. Waiting and doing nothing guarantees that there will soon be nothing left to recognize. Definitively.

Attempting to halt the spiral, even without the slightest assurance of success, is not the only argument in favor of recognizing Palestine. Loyalty to the values that France has always claimed to defend, beginning with support for the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians for self-determination in a land conquered by force by Israel in 1967, also led to this decision.

The two-state solution guarantees the irremediable defeat of Hamas, since it further entrenches the legitimacy of the Hebrew state after the recognition of Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1988 and 1993. It is also a safeguard against a drift which, if not stopped, will lead the latter to throw away its democratic nature and impose a veritable apartheid regime on Palestinians cloistered in enclaves.

Turning one's back on these values under the pretext that sticking to them would be a risky bet is in fact a eulogy to resignation, which makes the criticism all the more strange when it comes from ranks that gorge themselves on invocations of Gaullism. Either Palestine is an injustice and must be prevented. Or Palestine is the only solution, to save the Palestinians first, to protect the Israelis from themselves second, and this must be recognized.