2023-12-20 15:15:08
Emmanuel Macron, on the tarmac of Cairo airport, October 25, 2023. CHRISTOPHE ENA / AP
While the war in Gaza shows no sign of de-escalation, Emmanuel Macron is preparing to fly to Jordan. The Head of State will stay on Thursday December 21 and Friday December 22 in the Hashemite kingdom, where, as tradition dictates, he will share a Christmas meal with French soldiers sent to the “planned air base in the Levant”. This will be the third visit to the Middle East by the tenant of the Elysée since the start of hostilities in the Palestinian enclave, after the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7.
The French president’s previous trips, first to Israel, Egypt and Jordan two weeks after the attacks, then to Dubai, on the sidelines of the COP28, and to Qatar, at the beginning of December, highlighted the great difficulties of the France to position itself in relation to the conflict. The visit to the troops participating in Operation “Chammal” to fight against the Islamic State (IS) organization, in Syria and Iraq, should not escape this context.
“French officials are still trying to figure out where to start. They understood that their message was not getting through, as their positions were considered illegible”deplores a specialist in the region, preferring to remain anonymous. “It’s not us who have evolved, it’s events”, we defend ourselves at the Elysée. A look back at two months where French diplomacy continued to fumble, alternating missteps and muddled initiatives, as if Paris, long in tune with Middle Eastern realities, had suddenly lost the pulse of this region.
The tone is set
It all starts on October 12, with a televised speech by Emmanuel Macron, full of gravity. The images of the massacre committed by Hamas commandos are in everyone’s minds: 1,400 dead (toll reduced to 1,200 a few weeks later), including several dozen French people, rave revelers chased with Kalashnikovs, kibbutzniks murdered house by house, the hostages displayed like trophies in the streets of the Palestinian enclave… “An absolute unleashing of cruelty”scathes the French president, who strings together words of compassion towards the Israelis, solidarity with the French Jewish community and stigmatization of terrorism in the face of which he cannot “There will never be a “yes, but””.
“Israel has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorist groups, including Hamas, through targeted actions, but by preserving civilian populations, because that is the duty of democracies”, he just warns, while 6,000 bombs have already fallen on Gaza, killing more than 1,300 people. In ten minutes of speech, the Palestinians are briefly mentioned only once. As both countries mourn their children, the president has empathy for only one side. The tone is set.
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