Already inflamed, the tone rose again, Tuesday October 15, between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a new very firm exchange which this time focused on the role of the UN in the creation of the State of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu must not “free himself from UN decisions”, Emmanuel Macron warned on Wednesday October 15, according to participants in the Council of Ministers, recalling that it was a UN resolution that “created” the State of Israel.
“M. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN”, launched the Head of State, in reference to the vote in November 1947 by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
“And therefore, now is not the time to free ourselves from UN decisions“, he continued, while Israel is carrying out a ground offensive against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon, where peacekeepers are deployed.
Resolution 1701 of United Nations Security Council affirms that only the Lebanese army and this UN peace mission (UNIFIL) must be deployed in southern Lebanon and stipulates the cessation of hostilities on both sides of the border.
But Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Hezbollah used “the facilities and UNIFIL positions as a cover in order to carry out its attacks” against Israel, and called on Sunday the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, to put the Blue Helmets “in shelter immediately”.
Emmanuel Macron must, this Tuesday, October 15, “repeat his condemnations to the Israeli Prime Minister”according to Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
Netanyahu talks about “Vichy in France”
The Israeli Prime Minister was stung by these statements and was quick to respond to Emmanuel Macron. In a press release published during the day following a call between the two leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu made a point of sending a scathing “reminder” to the French president: “It is not the UN resolution which established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were survivors of the Holocaust – notably of the Vichy regime in France“, wrote the head of the Israeli government.
During their exchange, Emmanuel Macron also condemned “indiscriminate Israeli strikes which only increase an already unbearable human toll, in Gaza as in Lebanon”, according to a report from the Élysée. He then “urged Israel to put an end to this unjustifiable targeting”specifying that France will continue to contribute “to the full implementation of UNIFIL’s mission”.
Netanyahu opposed to unilateral ceasefire
But the French president’s requests seem to have gone unheeded. Benjamin Netanyahu said he “was opposed to a unilateral ceasefirewhich would not change the security situation in Lebanon”, according to the press release from his services.
In a speech, Hezbollah’s number two, Naïm Qassem, responded by affirming that “the solution” to end the war in Lebanon was “a ceasefire”, assuring that his movement would “not be defeated” by the Israeli armywhich has been leading a ground offensive in the south of the country since September 30, supported by air strikes. “As the Israeli enemy is bombing all of Lebanon, we have the right, in a defensive position, to attack anywhere in the Israeli enemy entity, in the center, in the north and in the south,” he said. also launched.
At the same time, the United States increased pressure on Israelsaying they were “opposed” to the bombing campaign carried out on Beirut and threatening their ally to suspend their aid in the absence of a “spectacular” increase in humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, at its lowest level according to the UN.
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