https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/05/macron-france-stop-arms-israel-gaza-war/
France does maintain strong relations with Lebanon and only sends around 30 million euros to Israel. In some ways, this move would not directly impact Israel. However, it is a continued trend of diplomatic isolation. France has a massive influence in Lebanon from its colonial era. Over 2 million resident speak French. Could Israel's political isolation deepen as more European countries rebuke Israel
What is the significance of France's Macron calling for an Arms Embargo and being rebuked by Netanyahu
byu/Presidentclash2 ingeopolitics
9 Comments
From a French perspective it’s nothing more than a symbolic statement, but it underlines a trend of increasing isolation and alienation of Israel from his allies
Does France have a massive influence in Lebanon? It seemed to be rather ineffectual during the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s. It isn’t clear if there are lingering affinities.
What people say in public and what is said behind closed doors don’t necessarily match imo.
As always, actions speak louder than words. If anything actually happens that’s significant, that will tell you what side Macron is actually on / whether this is symbolic / to appease a certain audience.
Besides, the likelihood of much of Israel’s arsenal and hardware being close to 5% of French origin is very small, opposed to around 70% of it being of US origin. As long as Israel have the US on-side I’m sure they would be more than happy to fill the gap.
He’s panicking because Israel is about to reveal French assistance to Hezbollah, massive political corruption and France’s involvement in October 7 attack.
France has always positioned itself as an alternative voice in the West. It’s aligned with US leadership like 90% of the time, but has a degree of freedom that, say, the United Kingdom doesn’t really express. Macron especially has amplified this as a staunch European unionist, pushing for a truly pan-European front that’s equal to (rather than subservient to) Anglo leadership. Condemning Israel and supporting Lebanon is a very easy way for France to brandish these credentials. That + the historic France-Lebanon ties
It’s the only ethical thing to do in my opinion, I think in a few years the question will be why did other European countries kept providing arms for the destruction of Gaza.Â
The significance is that Macron proves once again to be a spineless worm pandering to Islamists and extreme leftists, with no logic whatsoever.
About “The trend of Israel’s isolation”, if anyone knows the history beyond the last couple of decades, that was always the situation. The hypocritical world has always blamed Jews for defending themselves and most countries always held an arms embargo on Israel. This didn’t stop Israel then and will not stop it now.
Unlike Israel’s enemies, the Jews are fighting for their survival. Not because some dictator told them some prophet told him to murder Jews.
You’d be surprised just how much france buys Israeli solutions in cyber security and military tech, they hate it but Israel produces some of the best in those sectors in the entire world.
He’s saying this mostly to appease his voting base, a lot of France population are Arab/Muslim immigrants that feel sympathy for the Palestinian cause so it’s just politicians saying whatever is convenient for their voter base
A table full of Nothing buffet, since Israel is the main one selling Arms to France.