Under pressure, France postpones the international conference on Palestine

The major international conference on Palestine, scheduled for next week at the United Nations headquarters in New York, will not take place. Officially, the postponement is explained by regional tensions, including recent Israeli attacks against Iran. In reality, Paris is retreating. Under pressure from Israel and the United States, France preferred to adjourn rather than fully assuming the initiative it claimed to carry.

This summit, co -organized with Saudi Arabia, was to mark a decisive step towards the recognition of the state of Palestine. But as the deadline approached, French diplomacy has erased. Several capitals of the Middle East had warned that they would not participate-a pretext everything found to justify this withdrawal. But no one is fooled: this postponement looks like a capitulation. France folds in the face of the injunctions of its Western allies, renouncing to embody an independent and courageous word on the international scene.

Emmanuel Macron had however announced, in April, wanting to join the list of 147 countries having already recognized the state of Palestine. He had promised a strong initiative, a historic turning point, a clear signal. Today, he is backing down. The Israeli ambassador to France had a good game of qualifying this recognition as “disaster”: his threats have clearly paid off. By dint of wanting to spare Tel Aviv and Washington, Paris locked himself up in a blatant diplomatic inconsistency.

Meanwhile, the Élysée tried to save appearances. We talked about “tune” discussions, all-round phone calls, secret missions carried out by special advisers. But all this will not have masked the essential: France, once again, has stolen. Even the compromise project developed behind the scenes – disarmament of Hamas, security guarantees for Israel, supervised Palestinian elections – will not have been enough to reassure London or Washington. And above all, he will not have convinced Paris himself to hold on. By dint of hesitation, France has missed a crucial meeting with history.