French President  Emmanuel Macron has not acted as a friend to the Jewish state since October 7, instead acting with audacity by repeating lies about Israel’s actions in Gaza and even calling for an arms embargo on Israel. This hypocritical double standard belies its status as a major arms exporter to brutal autocracies in Africa and the Middle East.

There are many questions regarding the reasons behind Macron’s stance on Israel, including France’s suspect ties with Iran and its deep involvement in Lebanon, its former protectorate. France has raised millions of dollars for Lebanese “humanitarian” needs, much of which ends up in the hands of the murderous Hezbollah terror organization, which is officially part of the Lebanese government.

France issued a characteristic anti-Israel statement following the Hague’s approval last week of the arrest warrants against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, saying that it “takes note” of the ICC pre-trial chamber’s decision and “reiterates its commitment to the independent work of the court,” adding that “for many months it has also sounded the alarm about the unacceptable nature of civilian losses in the Gaza Strip.”

In the wake of the statement that implicated that France, a leading Western country, would arrest the Israeli prime minister if he entered the country, Netanyahu refused French involvement in a ceasefire unless France publicly announced it would not honor the ICC’s arrest warrants. Biden spoke to Macron over the weekend and he agreed to address the matter. In private conversations, French diplomats told their Israeli counterparts that Netanyahu would not be arrested if he visited France. However, Netanyahu insisted that he will maintain his veto on France until Paris publicly disavows the arrest warrants.

Behind the scenes, senior Israeli officials applied heavy pressure on France to release a public statement, and according to Israeli media reports, the US even threatened: “If you don’t issue a declaration that Netanyahu will not be arrested – Paris will not be able to be part of the agreement.”

Sure enough, with its own interests in mind, France “forgot” about Israel’s so-called “war crimes” and issued a statement on Wednesday declaring that it will not abide by the ICC’s arrest warrants and Netanyahu can visit France without fear of being arrested.

In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry reaffirmed France’s commitment to international “justice” but added that Netanyahu has immunity since Israel is not a member of the ICC.

“Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other relevant ministers and will need to be taken into consideration should the ICC request their arrest,” the ministry stated, adding that “Paris intends to continue working closely with Netanyahu.”

Channel 12 commentator Amit Segal responded: “A complete victory over the ICC. The only significant sanction that Israel feared is crumbling, and this by the French. As a reminder, this is not related to Netanyahu and Gallant’s personal interests – they weren’t issued arrest warrants for tax evasion but due to the fact that [Netanyahu] is the Prime Minister of Israel. The dismissal of the warrants against them is a very significant event and thwarts yet another formidable weapon that has been aimed at Israel for years and has restricted its actions.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)