US, Israel condemn France's move to recognize Palestinian state
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington “strongly rejects” French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state, as President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would not attend an upcoming United Nations conference on a two-state solution for the Palestinians.
Posting on Twitter late Thursday, Rubio criticized Macron’s “reckless decision,” which he said “only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace.”
Macron had previously said he would formalize France’s decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
“In keeping with my historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the state of Palestine,” Macron wrote on Twitter.
At least 142 of the 193 UN members currently recognize or intend to recognize a Palestinian state. But several powerful Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany, have refused to do so.
Fellow European Union members Norway, Ireland and Spain signaled in May that they had begun the process to recognize a Palestinian state.
But Macron’s decision would make France – one of Israel’s closest allies and a G7 member – the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe to take the step.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision, saying that such a move “rewards terrorism and the risk of creating another Iranian proxy.”
“A Palestinian state under these circumstances would be a launchpad for the destruction of Israel – not a peaceful coexistence with it,” he said in a post on X. Netanyahu added, “Let’s be clear: The Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel. They seek a state instead of Israel.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also described the move as “a disgrace and a surrender to terrorism.” He added that Israel would not allow the establishment of a “Palestinian entity that would undermine our security, that would endanger our very existence.”
While supporting a two-state solution has been the long-standing official US position, President Donald Trump himself has expressed doubts about its viability. After returning to the White House in January, Trump suggested that the US could “take over” Gaza, displacing the territory’s more than two million Palestinian population, and turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump’s plan has been called “ethnic cleansing” by rights groups, Arab states, Palestinians, and the United Nations.
In June, Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, also said that he did not think an independent Palestinian state was a goal of US foreign policy.
His comments prompted State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce to say that Huckabee “speaks for himself” and that policymaking is a matter for Trump and the White House.
On Thursday, State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said the United States would not attend the upcoming conference at the United Nations on the two-state solution. The conference—co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, and scheduled for July 28-30—is seeking to chart a roadmap to end the decades-old conflict and recognize a Palestinian state.
Speaking to reporters, Pigott said he had “nothing more” to say about the matter other than that Washington “will not be in attendance.”
Pressure is mounting on Israel to end its deadly war on Gaza, which has been ongoing since the Hamas-led, October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which saw some 1,139 people killed and more than 200 taken hostage in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s subsequent 21-month offensive on Gaza has killed some 60,000 Palestinians, with another 144,000 injured.
Months-long ceasefire talks – brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar – have so far failed to make progress.
On Monday, 28 countries – including Britain, Japan and several European countries – issued a joint statement calling on Israel to “end the war on Gaza now”.
The joint statement also condemned the "drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, who are struggling to meet their basic needs of water and food."
