Prime Minister Netanyahu Responds to Macron's Recognition of Palestine

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released the following statement today (Thursday) in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to recognize a state of Palestine:

"We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre. Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel."

Defense Minister Israel Katz had this to say:

"Macron's declaration of his intention to recognize a Palestinian state is a disgrace and surrender to terror and giving a prize and tailwind to the murderers and rapists of Hamas, who carried out the most horrific massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Instead of standing with Israel in this time of trial, the President of France is acting to weaken it. We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that would harm our security and endanger our existence and damage our historical right to the Land of Israel. We are all united to prevent this grave danger."

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar had this to say:

"The presumptuousness of the French President to create out of thin air the permanent arrangement in our land is absurd and not serious. His declaration this evening shows that all the conditions he himself set just a few weeks ago - have evaporated. Only the imaginary state that he pretends to establish remains. A Palestinian state will be a Hamas state exactly as the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip twenty years ago led to Hamas's takeover of it. President Macron cannot provide Israel with security. We hope he will succeed in doing so in the streets of Paris. Israel's attempt to base its security on Palestinian promises to fight terror failed completely in the Oslo process. Israel will not gamble again on its security and its future."