Despite Palestine vote, Israel still listens to France, envoy says

Israel understands and respects France’s position on Palestinian statehood, despite Paris’s vote in favor of a pro-Palestinian resolution in the United Nations Security Council last month, the French envoy in Tel Aviv said.

“France remains a state Israel listens to,” Ambassador Patrick Maisonnave told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. “Considering its history, its traditions, and its standing in the international community, France remains a partner that Israel listens to and respects.

On December 30, France voted in favor of a Security Council resolution that called for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem within three years and for the declaration of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. The resolution failed to garner the required nine votes, but Jerusalem was angered by Paris’s support for what it considered a Palestinian bid to impose terms for statehood upon Israel. Maisonnave was called to the Foreign Ministry for “clarifications.”

Earlier in December, the two chambers of the French parliament passed largely symbolic resolutions recognizing a Palestinian state.

Speaking in his beachfront Tel Aviv office, Maisonnave said he wasn’t summoned but rather “invited” to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem to explain his government’s policy.

“Our position is understood by the State of Israel,” the diplomat said. “On the question of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the international community needs to formulate a certain number of principles. The French idea is that these principles, what we consider to be the parameters of a solution, be enshrined in a Security Council resolution.”

The Israeli government is well aware that several events in recent months, particular last summer’s war in Gaza, prevented the resumption of peace negotiations, he continued. “The absence of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians has led to a situation that is fragile, that remains volatile, as witnessed unfortunately by the attack in a bus in Tel Aviv,” he said. “Unfortunately, the persistent ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians is not sustainable, and therefore something must be undertaken.”

Paris would like to see peace talks continue as soon as possible but does not believe that the international community is a substitute for the two parties’ efforts at finding a solution, Maisonnave said. “Quite the contrary: France always said the international community should try to identify the parameters of peace that could perhaps — so we hope — help the parties, Israelis and Palestinians, resume negotiations.”

Asked how supporting a resolution that would unilaterally impose deadlines and other terms on Israel, the ambassador replied that his government tried to look at the core issues that in the past had caused talks to fail and establish parameters to assist the sides in overcoming the impasse.

Last week, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls indicated that Paris had no intention of walking back its principled support for Palestinian statehood or its voting pattern at the UN. “The bond between France and Israel is very strong. Of course we can disagree on one political topic or another,” Valls told American Jewish leaders last Thursday in a telephone conference.