From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 12, 2025
‘A sad joke’ of a letter: Sa’ar lashes out at Macron after French leader praises Abbas for condemning Oct. 7
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar blasts French President Emmanuel Macron for praising a letter in which PA President Mahmoud Abbas, for the first time since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, explicitly condemns the attack.
In a post on X, Sa’ar calls the letter, addressed to Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “a sad joke,” saying that only now, Abbas condemned the attack “using weak and feeble language… as if France had been the target.”
President Macron expresses excitement over the orchestrated letter he received from Mahmoud Abbas. What made the French president so enthusiastic about a letter full of empty slogans, hollow promises that have been made countless times before, and lies that have no connection to… https://t.co/sIcjXpfuia
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) June 12, 2025
Abbas outlined his vision for how to end the war in Gaza and achieve peace in the region in the letter to Macron and bin Salman, who will co-chair a conference on a two-state solution later this month.
Sa’ar says any claim by Abbas to “oppose terror” or to reform the PA in the West Bank is invalid: “What real reforms has he actually implemented?” Sa’ar demands. “The incitement against Israel remains exactly the same: in schools, in textbooks, in Palestinian media, and in mosques. And so does the continued policy of rewarding terrorists, the infamous ‘Pay for Slay,'” he wrote, accusing the PA of decades-long “commitment to the ethos of terrorism.”
Abbas has repeatedly condemned Hamas in recent months and has instituted reforms, including one that would end the PA’s controversial policy of financially rewarding the families of Palestinian security prisoners and slain terrorists who carried out attacks against Israelis.
Abbas’s pledge to dismantle Hamas and take over postwar Gaza is “laughable and entirely detached from reality. We all remember how the Palestinian Authority…fled Gaza shortly after Israel withdrew,” and even now “cannot maintain control” in the West Bank, Sa’ar continues.
Sa’ar warns that any future Palestinian state would “at lightning speed” mirror Gaza’s fall to Hamas.
“Israel will not base its policy or its future on empty illusions that have blown up in our faces countless times,” the foreign minister asserts. “If Macron is so eager for a Palestinian state — he is welcome to establish one in France’s vast territory.”
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