French President Emmanuel Macron ties his plan to recognize a Palestinian state to a hostage condition, exposing the emptiness of symbolic diplomacy while Hamas continues to brutalize innocents.
French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that while France will move ahead with recognition of a Palestinian state, it will withhold opening any embassy until Hamas frees the hostages still languishing in Gaza.
“It will be, for us, a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine,” Macron told CBS News in an interview aired Sunday.
Macron plans to announce formal recognition of a Palestinian state during the UN General Assembly this week, joining Britain, Australia, Canada, and Portugal, which issued similar declarations in recent days.
But the contradiction is glaring. Even as Western capitals rush to crown “Palestine” with symbolic legitimacy, they acknowledge the grim reality: Hamas — the very force still holding Israeli hostages — dominates Gaza. By tying recognition to hostage release, Macron inadvertently underscores that Palestinian “statehood” today is inseparable from terror.
Macron further rejected any proposals to displace Gazans during reconstruction, calling such an idea “craziness.” Yet he offered no clarity on how Hamas’s ongoing reign of terror and refusal to surrender arms would factor into France’s recognition.
For Israel and its allies, the message is clear: empty diplomatic gestures may win applause at the UN, but until Hamas is dismantled and hostages are freed, talk of Palestinian sovereignty remains little more than a dangerous illusion.
