Recognising a Palestinian state is consistent with a long history of French policy in the Middle East

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted, “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of  October 7.”

And new American ambassador to France Charles Kushner called this “a gift to Hamas and a blow to peace. I’ve just arrived, and I’m deeply disappointed.”

Among Congressional Republicans, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton denounced Macron’s “shameful endorsement of terrorists”. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham criticised it as “curious and disturbing on multiple levels”, noting crucial unanswered questions in the “foolproof plan”.

Idaho Senator Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, called it a “terrible decision” that “will do nothing to help the Palestinians and will only exacerbate growing antisemitism at the UN and in Europe”. And Florida Representative Brian Mast, chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, commented: “Choosing to reward terrorism, hostage taking and genocide against Jews is the wrong choice.”

Democratic New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer characterised the announcement as “deeply misguided”, “counterproductive” and “a slap in the face to the victims of 10/7”. The internationally orientated American Jewish Committee said France “sends a dangerous message: you can get what you want through violence”. A second AJC statement revealed several “leading American Jewish organisations” had “declined an invitation to meet with  France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs” to discuss a policy that had apparently already been settled.

Americans sounded surprised by Macron’s announcement. After all, as AJC noted, it was only three months ago that Macron said recognition hinged on “the release of the hostages still held in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas”.

Should Americans be surprised, though? France and the United States haven’t always seen eye to eye on international affairs.

Le Monde Diplomatique newspaper, which has used “Tel Aviv” as a metonym for Israel’s government and criticised Macron for being too pro-Israel in November 2023, recalled former President Charles de Gaulle setting a tone they liked when he “vehemently opposed the Israeli offensive of June 1967 and even imposed an arms embargo”.

Subsequently, the paper went on, “Georges Pompidou expanded French arms exports to Arab states; Valéry Giscard d’Estaing initiated dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and pushed for the  European Economic Community [EEC] to adopt the Venice declaration affirming the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination; François Mitterrand uttered the words ‘PLO’ and ‘Palestinian state’ in a speech to the Knesset in 1982 and received Yasser Arafat at the Élysée in 1989. And Jacques Chirac retains a place in many Palestinians’ memories not only for the 1996 visit [to meet Arafat in Gaza] but also for his fierce opposition to the Iraq war in 2003, for welcoming a sick Yasser Arafat to France and for being the first head of state to pay tribute to him when he died.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, there has been a Charles de Gaulle Street in Gaza and “a Jacques Chirac Street in Ramallah”.

More recently, Reuters reported last year that Hamas-patron Qatar will invest “ten billion euros ($10.85 billion) into start-ups and investment funds in France between 2024 and 2030”.

And last Friday, the Associated Press reported that the French had released Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, “a Lebanese pro-Palestinian communist militant” who “was serving a life sentence for complicity in the murders of two diplomats, one American and one Israeli, in Paris in 1982”.

Upon landing in Lebanon, the unrepentant Abdallah, it said, “called for confrontation of Israel” while addressing the media.

​Macron’s destructive announcement will not bring the “just and lasting peace” he claims to want, but it certainly is of a piece with France’s Middle East history.

And more than that, this announcement will always be Macron’s – and now Starmer’s – blunder.