Macron (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Reuters)
Al Jazeera Net broadcast on the YouTube platform the first episode of “File of the Month,” a monthly video that addresses topical topics including important files. In its first episode, the video reviews the secrets of the fluctuations in French-Israeli relations from General de Gaulle to Emmanuel Macron.
Since the seventh of last October, French positions have fluctuated - as they did throughout the period of the Fifth Republic - between full support for the Israeli occupation and its emphasis on some of the human and political rights of the Palestinians.
Since the 1940s, France was one of the first countries to support the establishment of the State of Israel and contribute to its establishment politically, militarily and developmentally. Before Charles de Gaulle left power in 1969, he formed a new policy in dealing with Israel that was based on freedom from complete bias towards Israel and adopting the option of a two-state solution.
The new line continued beyond the de Gaulle era, throughout the terms of presidents Georges Pompidou, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and François Mitterrand, in addition to Jacques Chirac.
But with the arrival of liberal President Nicolas Sarkozy to power, France returned to an era of subordination to the American-Israeli policy at the expense of recognizing the right of the Palestinians to establish their independent state. The same policy continued with the arrival of the socialist François Hollande and continued with the current president, Emmanuel Macron.
Analysts explain the return of French diplomacy to alignment with Israel's options to the increasing influence and effectiveness of the Jewish lobby in the country, but the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza made Macron express contradictory positions that ranged between siding with Israel and angering its leaders.
According to reports, Macron's policy - even if it is the result of internal and external pressures - does not differ from the fluctuations that have characterized the history of French-Israeli relations over more than 80 years.
Source: Al Jazeera