Faced with the Israel-Gaza war, Emmanuel Macron’s Arab leverage

Anxious to make his contribution to the return of peace to the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron continued his regional tour on Wednesday October 25. In the morning, he met in Amman with King Abdullah of Jordan and in the afternoon in Cairo with Egyptian President al-Sissi.

Jordan and Egypt are today the two major Arab players with regard to the Palestinian problem. Jordan controlled the West Bank from 1949 to 1967, it has a population of 55% Palestinian origin, it has a Palestinian queen, it concluded a peace treaty with the Jewish state a quarter of a century ago, after having fought two wars against him. Its population has demonstrated massively, in the last two weeks, in favor of the Palestinians of Gaza, victims of massive bombings by Israeli planes.

Egypt, at peace with Israel since 1979, holds the southern border of the Gaza Strip, and in particular the Rafah point, the only place of passage for Palestinian inhabitants who wish to travel outside and, more recently, a resupply point major part of this 365 km2 territory, permanently closed since 2008. Not a single humanitarian aid truck passes through Gaza today unless it has previously obtained double authorization: Egyptian and Israeli. Without shouting it from the rooftops, the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence services work hand in hand, sharing the same desire for a pacified Sinai, devoid of any armed groups.

To the two moderate Arab leaders, Abdallah and al-Sissi, the French president proposed his idea of ​​an international coalition for peace and security, made up of the great powers and all the countries of the Middle East wishing to fight terrorism together . It is true that, in the recent past, the coalition against Daesh worked well, succeeding in eliminating the bulk of Islamic State fighters who had established roots in Iraq and Syria.

The French president insisted on the importance of sharing intelligence. He took the precaution of no longer comparing Hamas to Daesh - which he had done the day before, in front of a delighted Benjamin Netanyahu. Emmanuel Macron has indeed become aware that the populations of the Arab-Muslim world consider Hamas as a nationalist resistance movement, which legitimizes the unique state of confinement in the world of the 2.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

But the principle of this joint initiative against terrorism was well received by the two moderate Arab leaders, because both suffer from serious terrorism problems at home.

The second pillar proposed by Macron to his Arab interlocutors is a common struggle for the development of populations impoverished by the repercussions of this endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the short term, the aim is to provide maximum aid to Gaza and obtain the opening of humanitarian corridors. The French president announced the departure of a national navy hospital ship from Toulon towards the shores of Gaza. From October 26, French planes will shuttle to Egyptian territory to bring humanitarian aid to the Gazan population.

Responding to an accusation, made against Westerners by the King of Jordan, of practicing a policy of double standards with regard to Palestinian victims, Emmanuel Macron replied that France, “land of humanism ”, never practiced it. “For France, all lives are equal, there is no hierarchy,” said the head of state.

In the medium term, the French president and his Arab interlocutors will work to make international productive investments possible in the Palestinian Territories, once Israel has lifted their blockade.

Finally, the French president explained that there would never be peace in the region without the creation of a viable Palestinian state. He put this Palestinian aspiration for statehood on par with Israel's right to security.

At the presidential palace in Cairo, Emmanuel Macron hailed the success of the strategic partnership between France and Egypt (in particular on the fight against terrorism and on the resolution of the Libyan question) and recalled that the two countries had not never stopped campaigning for the creation of a Palestinian state.

For the French president and his Arab interlocutors, it is essential that the conflict does not spread. This is why the three leaders are preaching moderation to Israel, both in its operation to dismantle Hamas - which could "take a lot of time", according to al-Sisi -, and in its reaction to the sporadic shootings on villages in the Galilee, from southern Lebanon, controlled by the Shiite Hezbollah militia.

In short, Emmanuel Macron wishes, with the help of his Arab lever (which is Egyptian and Jordanian, but also Saudi, Emirati and Qatari), to break the inevitability of the Middle East, which American journalists have summarized as follows for twenty years: “US bombs, UN feeds, EU countries” (America or its Israeli ally bombs, the UN takes care of feeding the refugees, the European Union pays for the reconstruction).

President al-Sissi warmly and publicly thanked President Macron for his “courageous and necessary commitment” to lasting peace in the Middle East.

If we forget the preposterous idea of ​​an international military coalition against Hamas proposed in Israel on October 24, the French president has undoubtedly diplomatically surpassed his Western counterparts. MM. Biden, Sunak and Scholz only traveled to Israel. Macron also succeeded in building a credible partnership with Arab leaders neighboring the Palestinians.