Condemn but do not punish.. Mediapart: Is France weak in the face of Israel?

French President Emmanuel Macron will use the football match between his country and Israel to reenact the friendship between the two sides, Mediapart reported, noting that the tone may rise at regular intervals between Paris and Tel Aviv, but French diplomacy remains cautious so far.

The website indicated - in a report by Elias Ramdani - that the announcement of Macron's desire to attend the match is a way to send a "fraternal message and solidarity with Israel" after the riots that followed the match in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Like Macron, Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse and former president Nicolas Sarkozy have also announced their desire to go to the match. Pécresse said she was "disturbed by the images coming from Amsterdam", stressing that "the Republic cannot be intimidated".

Interior Minister Bruno Rotao adopted the same military tone, announcing the deployment of a large police force to secure the football match.

The website considered that keeping the match on this date and in this place was not in the cards two months ago, but Macron personally decided to play the match as planned and then attend it, in a signal that he hopes will reach the Jewish community "which was greatly affected by his absence from the march against anti-Semitism on November 12, 2023," according to the website.

Insult and no punishment

Mathilde Panot, head of the France Insoumise group in the National Assembly, asked the prime minister, “How dare you welcome one of the most brutal faces of the genocide in Gaza?” He responded by renewing his condemnation of Smotrich’s statements, stressing that there would be “no form of government contact with him.” In the end, the concert that was to be held in Paris was cancelled.

"Condemnation is good," MP Sabrina Al-Sabbahi joked. "We condemn the massacres, we condemn the famine, okay, but what then? Behind the words there is nothing tangible, and doing nothing means giving Netanyahu a blank check."

However, the government recalled the sanctions taken against 28 extremist settlers in the West Bank, the strong words of the President of the State and the action of French diplomacy in international bodies.

The website pointed out that France, realizing the loss of French influence in the region, is waiting for the great powers to change the situation, and perhaps the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States may resolve the conflict if he succeeds in convincing Israel to stop the massacre, in exchange for obtaining the long-awaited normalization with Arab countries.

However, France's wait-and-see stance, as deadly bombings continue in Gaza and Lebanon, poses a moral and legal risk.

Farah Safi, a law professor and vice president of the Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law, believes that “France does not respect the obligations of international humanitarian law,” especially the Geneva Conventions, which “require it to use all available means to put an end to crimes.”

Source: Mediapart