From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Israelis fume at Macron, say he is giving prize to terror
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleCabinet ministers and opposition politicians alike are both reacting to France’s Palestinian statehood announcement by calling it a prize for terror.
Macron just awarded Hamas a prize for committing the October 7 massacre.
This shameful act is nothing less than a betrayal by one of the so-called “leaders” of the free world. It sends a chilling message: terrorism pays off.@EmmanuelMacron will be remembered as a collaborator…
— Amir Ohana – אמיר אוחנה (@AmirOhana) July 24, 2025
Defense Minister Israel Katz calls the move a “disgrace, surrender to terror, and a prize and wind at the back of the murderers and rapists of Hamas,” accusing Macron of trying to weaken Israel.
“We will not allow the creation of a Palestinian entity that harms our security and risks our existence and hurts our historic rights to the Land of Israel,” he adds.
I thank President Macron for providing yet another compelling reason to finally apply Israeli sovereignty over the historic regions of Judea and Samaria, and to definitively abandon the failed concept of establishing a Palestinian terroist state in the heart of the Land of…
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) July 24, 2025
“There will be no Palestinian state,” Education Minister Yoav Kisch declares. “The out-of-touch Macron has announced he is giving a prize to terror and to Hamas, [but] it doesn’t change a thing. For shame!”
“Recognizing a Palestinian state is a prize for terror and bolsters Hamas,” complains Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman. “This is not justice.”
Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state after the October 7th massacre isn’t diplomacy; it’s moral collapse.
It rewards mass murder and tells Islamist terrorists: kill Jews, and the world will hand you a state.
This shameful decision will be tossed this into the dustbin…
— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) July 24, 2025
More than one politician notes France’s own struggles with absorbing its Muslim population.
“Macron, instead of worrying about a Palestinian state that will never happen, wake up to your own country,” tweets Transportation Minister Miri Regev, claiming that Paris “looks more like Kabul.”
“Maybe first recognize a state of France at the UN before you start fantasizing about Palestine,” she adds.
Yuli Edelstein, the soon-to-be ousted head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, says Israel “is watching with worry how Islamic immigration is influencing the decision-making of the French Republic. I wish the French people luck in fighting for their identity and freedom.”
His likely replacement, Boz Bismuth, says Israel “will recognize [a Palestinian state]… in France.”
Hadash-Ta’al head Ayman Odeh, on the other hand, says he welcomes the decision, calling it a “necessary step for a people that has suffered so much.”
The Times of Israel Community.