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Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-double-game-of-french-diplomacy/
The Double Game of French Diplomacy
(Israel Hayom) Amb. Freddy Eytan - Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the mood in Europe has been clearly anti-Israeli. EU countries, and France in particular, accuse Israel of "flouting international law in the Palestinian territories." This accusation is based primarily on biased reports from Hamas and pro-Palestinian NGOs. Moreover, the anti-Israel condemnations and threats of sanctions fail to take into account Hamas's human rights violations or the difficulties for a democratic state fighting on the ground against a terrorist organization that holds hostages in inhumane conditions and uses its own population as human shields. EU threats to restrict trade relations, sanction Israeli ministers, and impose an arms embargo are senseless and unprecedented measures against a friendly and allied state that is fighting Islamist terrorism single-handedly. French President Macron condemns at every opportunity "an unjustifiable war" in Gaza and gives the impression that he has erased the memory of the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. His Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noel Barrot, is to chair an international meeting on the Palestinian issue planned for New York on July 28. Macron's obsession with playing the role of referee in our region at all costs is unacceptable. The writer, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, is a former Foreign Ministry senior adviser who was Israel's first ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.