France over the weekend called on Israel to recognize a Palestinian state if ongoing peace-making efforts orchestrated by Paris end in failure. France announced on erev Shabbos 19 Shevat it will be hosting an international peace conference to be attended by the United States, European Union and Arab nations.

While Israel is willing to “consider attending” such a conference, the ultimatum officials are quoted announcing is another story, a “fundamentally incorrect approach”, explaining that it sends a message to PA (Palestinian Authority) negotiators to reject any deal and wait for a collapse of the talks and then they would declare a state that Israel would be compelled to recognize.

Ynet reports that persons close to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu feel France coordinated this initiative with opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog who visited with French President Francois Hollande last month along with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Herzog denies any such dealings.

US officials are also questioning the wisdom of the French proposal, with a senior State Department official quoted saying “America’s official and clear stance is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be resolved through direct negotiations between them, and not by unilateral steps.”

At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 21 Shevat, during his comments in the presence of the media, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed a number of issues including the French initiative. He stated, “At the same time, you certainly heard of the proposal being raised in certain quarters in France, to convene an international conference with the threat at the end that if it is unsuccessful, then France will – to a large degree – adopt the Palestinian position. This will be an incentive for the Palestinians to come and not compromise. The substance of negotiations is compromise and the French initiative, as it has been reported, in effect gives the Palestinians in advance reasons not to do so. I believe that we will see a sobering up on this issue. In any case, we will work to bring this about and our position is very clear: We are prepared to enter into direct negotiations without preconditions and without dictated conditions”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)