Emmanuel Macron’s Palestine advance weakens Europe

The suffering is unbearable. Palestinians have been dying in the Gaza strip for almost two years. Families are torn, children are killed, people without limbs despair in search of residual traces of medical care. Instead of destroying Hamas, Netanyahu’s hunger war in Gaza created hell on earth.

It is good if something moves politically in the West. It takes more pressure on Israel to set military operation. At first it was right, also necessary to react to Hamas’s barbaric attack. In the meantime, it is emaciated, aimlessly, counterproductive when it comes to hope to bring the last hostages home alive. The war has to end, better today than tomorrow. That’s correct.

Emmanuel Macron, the French President, who has always liked the role of the European driver, now wants to set an example internationally. He has announced that France-Vetomacht in the UN Security Council-will recognize Palestine as a state. The announcement is intended to get the West out of lethargy, sweep other states and to signal Netanyahu: Your behavior has consequences. We move off.

You can do it that way, but you shouldn’t indulge in the illusion that this step changes the situation on site, let alone end the war. A Palestinian state is just as unrealistic as it is rare. This is because there is no real Palestinian leadership, so it is completely unclear how a state should look political at all. But that’s also due to Israel. The settlement construction is progressing, and the Knesset has just pleaded to annex the West Bank by resolution. In order to dissuade Israel from creating facts that prevent a two-state solution from the outset, a determined West is needed-and a closed, strong Europe. Macron’s move is more weak in Europe.

For a long time, the EU has been disputed in terms of the Middle East. Part of Europe does not want sanctions, another. Some states do not want a weapon embargo, others. How split the continent has just become visible when it came to signing an explanation that Israel requires a stop of the Gaza surgery. Not even that worked, also because Germany was out.

Instead of putting pressure on Israel, Macron forces to recognize Palestine alone, forces other European countries to position themselves. It ensures additional disputes, in addition in a question that has more symbolic value than real consequences.

Friedrich Merz, with whom Macron actually wanted to form a new axis, will not be able to join the Frenchman. It would be an affront to the state that Germany feels particularly committed. But if even Berlin and Paris don’t pull together in terms of Gaza – why should Benjamin Netanyahu be impressed by any announcement from Brussels?

Macron and Merz only met in Berlin on Wednesday. The fact that they have not succeeded in arriving a common line is a miserable sign – for which Merz is also responsible. The Chancellor appears weakly when it comes to Gaza, almost paralyzed. Merz does not solve his own promise to lead Europe and to ensure that the EU speaks to one voice.

If Europe still wants to play a role in the plan to move Netanyahu to the U -turn, unity is needed. The task of the Chancellor and the French President would now be to develop this unity behind the scenes. And not to rely on effects that harm rather than benefits.