Macron’s ultimate goal is to show there is a global counterweight to Trump’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, and to ramp up the pressure for peace. Comparisons are already being made with France’s defiance under Jacques Chirac to stand up to the U.S. over the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — a position also articulated in a landmark speech at the U.N.
There is, of course, a strong domestic political motive too. European leaders are conscious of their need to ride a wave of public anger about the war, which is only growing as the death toll in Gaza surges. The pollster YouGov has found public support for Israel in Western Europe is plumbing historic lows.
But how much influence does Macron actually have? Even the French admit the grandstanding and big gestures in New York will make no immediate difference to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as Israeli tanks crunch forward in a ground offensive. Neither Israel nor the United States will hold back because of Macron.
What’s more, the French president’s attempt to show a common front also reveals how disunited Western Europe looks, particularly when EU and NATO countries are treading on eggshells around Trump because of the war in Ukraine.
Germany, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands won’t be signing up. Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz will not even attend, having found more pressing concerns at home. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has insisted she is not in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state “prior to establishing it,” and will arrive a day after Macron’s event.
‘It doesn’t change anything’
The gamble, according to one European diplomat, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, was that “Israel would give some ground” as international pressure mounted against it.