International \u00a0ONLINE DESK<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday recognized a Palestinian state, leading a UN summit that already spurred other Western governments to take the landmark step that has infuriated Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time for peace has come, as we are just moments away from no longer being able to seize it,\u201d Macron told the summit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time has come to free the 48 hostages held by Hamas. The time has come to stop the war, the bombings of Gaza, the massacres and the displacement,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n
Australia, Britain, Canada and Portugal also took the largely symbolic step of recognition on the eve of the summit called by France and Saudi Arabia, piling pressure on Israel as it intensifies its retaliatory war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n
Macron earlier said he would make the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel a precondition for opening a French embassy to the Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Israel has repeatedly warned France against recognizing a Palestinian state, with far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government mulling annexation of the West Bank to make any state impossible.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, warned, \u201cWe will take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easier to come here and give speeches, take pictures, feel like they are doing something. But they are not promoting peace. They are supporting terrorism,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
The United States, Israel\u2019s crucial diplomatic and military supporter, had unsuccessfully urged its allies to drop the recognition plans, with President Donald Trump saying that a state can only come through negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, he believes it\u2019s a reward to Hamas,\u201d White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said of recognizing a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he believes these decisions are just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies,\u201d she told reporters in Washington.<\/p>\n
Germany, while more critical than Washington of Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, also broke with France and Britain and will not recognize a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that \u201ca negotiated two-state solution is the path that can allow Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, security and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top of UN agenda
\nMore than 140 world leaders will descend on New York but not Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who was denied a visa by the US authorities, forcing him to attend virtually.<\/p>\n
Israel said it would skip an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Gaza Tuesday because of the Jewish New Year, calling the timing \u201cregrettable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu reiterated Sunday his position that there would be no Palestinian state and vowed to accelerate the creation of new settlements.<\/p>\n
Two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, went further, calling for the annexation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP Friday \u201cwe should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Erasure of Palestinian life\u2019
\nMacron had voiced exasperation at Israel\u2019s prolonged offensive as he decided to recognize a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Britain, which more than a century ago declared support for a Jewish homeland, held out the possibility of backing down on recognition of a Palestinian state if Israel agreed on a ceasefire in Gaza.<\/p>\n
But the historic step also is unlikely to have much effect on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless backed up by concrete measures, recognizing Palestine as a state risks becoming a distraction from the reality, which is an accelerating erasure of Palestinian life in their homeland,\u201d said the International Crisis Group\u2019s Israel-Palestine project director, Max Rodenbeck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International \u00a0ONLINE DESK French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday recognized a Palestinian state, leading a UN summit that already spurred other Western governments to take the landmark step that has infuriated Israel. \u201cThe time for peace has come, as we are just moments away from no longer being able to seize it,\u201d Macron told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66036,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66034\/revisions\/66036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}