“If the West had any influence over Israel, there would have been a small Palestinian state a long time ago. Everyone can see that Israel has influence over the United States, much more than the other way around”, the former Secretary General of the Presidency under the Socialist François Mitterrand stressed to La Tribune.
According to the international relations expert and executive in various institutions, neither France nor the European Union (EU) have the power to convince Netanyahu, who is waging bloody wars against Palestine and Lebanon with the argument of eliminating Hamas and Hezbollah, respectively.
However, let’s be optimistic, the day a peace process is launched, France and the Europeans could do enough to support and accompany it, for example by offering financial guarantees, he said.
For Védrine, the Israeli Prime Minister’s goal is to remain in power, which means extending the conflicts, or even encouraging their escalation.
His discourse for a dozen years has been to protect Israel from Iran, without particular opposition in his country and with the support of the West, he added, in a context of growing tension, following the assassination two days ago in a bombing in the Lebanese South of the top leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
In the former foreign minister’s opinion, the increaaw of attacks against Lebanon is “a by-product of the decades-long absence of a serious solution to the Palestinian question”.
jrr/jav/mem/wmr
