Valls: Netanyahu should show faith in French peace intiative

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Saturday that Israel should have some faith in a peace initiative forwarded by France and that a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians is the only way forward.

Valls was speaking to Channel 2 ahead of his arrival in Israel Saturday evening, to begin a four-day visit to the region in a bid to sell France’s peace conference in Paris set for June 3.

The conference, initially planned for May 30, was postponed so that US Secretary of State John Kerry can attend.

The summit will host officials from 20 countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to discuss the peace process. Israel and the Palestinians have not been invited, but will be included at a later conference.

Valls received support from the Palestinians but objections from Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu questioning French “impartiality” after Paris voted in favor of a UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount that did not mention Jewish ties to the holy site.

Israel also charged that direct negotiations with the Palestinians were the only way forward.

Speaking to ministers ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting last Sunday, Netanyahu said that “any other attempt only makes peace more remote and gives the Palestinians an escape hatch to avoid confronting the root of the conflict.”

On Channel 2 Saturday, the French prime minister said that while there may be some agreements and some disagreements on certain issues, “Netanyahu must show some faith [in France and its initiative].”

Valls questioned whether Netanyahu’s insistence on direct negotiations without preconditions have worked, charging that “direct dialogue today [between Israelis and Palestinians] is very difficult, settlements continue to be built, tensions continue to rise and so the world community must play a role,” Valls said.

The French PM spoke warmly of Israel and Israel-France ties, insisting that peace was in the best interest of everyone: Israelis and Palestinians, the region and the world.

“The world community is making efforts to find a way to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on the idea of two states with clear, viable borders, and with Jerusalem as the capital of both states,” said Valls.

The idea is to have an initial conference with the countries that are most involved, without Israelis and Palestinians, and then another round with the involvement of both sides, Valls indicated.

Asked if he was convinced that Netanyahu was interested in a two-state solution, Valls responded: “Why wouldn’t I be? Why would I doubt his words?”

“This is the best solution. What other is there?” he asked.

As to France’s role, Valls said that in a world that sees instability and conflict, “Israel needs France, and it needs its trust and its engagement.”

The French prime minister expressed his profound admiration for Israel, not least as an innovative state and a bulwark against terrorism.

“I have enormous admiration for how Israel handles terrorism,” he said, “[and] I don’t forget that it has been a victim of terror, like I don’t forget that today, the first victims of terrorism are Muslims, the first victims of Daesh and al-Qaeda are Muslims. Terrorism is a plague,” said Valls using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State terror group, which was responsible for a series of deadly, coordinated attacks in Paris last November which claimed 130 lives.

The perpetrator of the January 2015 attack at a kosher supermarket outside Paris, Amedy Coulibaly, claimed to be acting in the name of the group.

Asked why France would want to invest so much effort in trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when other much deadlier conflicts in the world rage on, Valls said that “France is on every continent in the world. Fighting terror is a priority for France. Without French intervention, Mali would today be a terror state, without our intervention there would have been a genocide in the Central African Republic, we are part of the coalition against Daesh.”