Israel-Gaza: a majority of French people approve of Emmanuel Macron's visit to the Middle East but doubt its effectiveness

It was not until more than two weeks after the Hamas attacks against Israel that Emmanuel Macron decided to go to the region. A week after most of his Western counterparts, the President of the Republic carried out a tour of the Middle East this week, starting with a trip to Israel. After the Hebrew State, the head of state stopped in the West Bank, Jordan, then Egypt. Although a majority of French people (55%) believe that this visit was necessary and important, part of the country nevertheless doubts its real impact on the situation. According to an Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey for Le Figaro, only a third of respondents (32%) believe that the tenant of the Élysée can play a role in the conflict, and 65% persist in thinking that France's voice carries little weight. In the region. Nearly three-quarters (72%) even go so far as to affirm that the positions taken by the tenant of the Élysée will have no impact on the war between Israel and Hamas.

In addition, while a fear of the importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict weighs on France, 71% of French people believe that Emmanuel Macron's foreign policy will not limit this risk. In search of a position of balance, the head of state first insisted, alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, on his “solidarity” with Israel, to the point of suggesting that the international anti-Daesh coalition could extend to the fight against Hamas - a controversial proposition on the international scene, but supported by 60% of French people. With Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Republic then pleaded for the relaunch of a “political process with the Palestinians”.

A speech which only convinced a quarter of French people (26%), while 30% of them believe that the Élysée has generally supported Israel. Even the affirmation of a “legitimate right of Palestinians to have a territory and a state” was not enough for public opinion to see it as a defense of Palestinian rights (5%). Unsurprisingly, Renaissance supporters are the most numerous to praise Emmanuel Macron's level-headedness (57%), while 62% of La France Insoumise (LFI) voters judge that his remarks were pro-Israeli.

By declaring that “the security of Israel and the stability of the region” could not be sustainable without recognition of the “legitimate right of the Palestinians to have a state”, Emmanuel Macron nevertheless received 75% of good opinions. A similar proportion of French people lined up behind the head of state (73%) when he called not to “target civilians, neither in Gaza nor anywhere”, in agreement with the “ law of war. This, while the Israeli army Tsahal seems to be moving a little more every day towards a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.