French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his disapproval of the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital Sunday at a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and urged the Israeli leader to “show courage” in advancing peace talks.
Netanyahu, for his part, insisted that Jerusalem is as much Israel’s capital as Paris is France’s. And he said the sooner the Palestinians “come to grips” with the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, “the sooner we move towards peace.”
At a joint appearance marked by the open differences of opinion between the two allied leaders, Macron said he had informed Netanyahu, who arrived earlier in the day, of his opposition to the move last Wednesday by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“These statements do not serve security, especially security of Palestinians and Israelis,” Macron said after three hours of talks with the Israeli prime minister.
On Saturday, Macron had pledged to work to convince Trump to retract his decision, having called the US move “regrettable” shortly after Trump’s announcement.
In his Wednesday address from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace, a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.
Netanyahu and others in Israel have praised Trump for the move, and Netanyahu on Sunday pushed back against the French rejection.
“Where else is the capital of Israel but Jerusalem?” the prime minister asked at the press conference, noting that Israel’s government and courts are located in the holy city.
“Jerusalem has not been the capital of any other people,” he said.
“Paris is the capital of France. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s been the capital of Israel for 3,000 years; it’s been the capital of the State of Israel for 70 years,” Netanyahu said. “We respect your history and your choices. and I know that, as friends, you respect ours,” he told Macron. “And it is also essential for peace. I think that what peace requires is to be built on the foundation of truth, on the facts of the past and on the present. This is the only way that you can build pluralistic and successful future.”
Macron, who told the Israeli prime minister he considered Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem to run contrary to international law, called on Netanyahu to push for advancing peace talks, though he said he was not looking to start another peace initiative, as his predecessor François Hollande had attempted. He said that the main focus now was to prevent violence.
“I urged the prime minister to show courage in his dealings with the Palestinians to get us out of the current dead-end,” Macron said.
“It seems to me that freezing settlement building and confidence measures with regard to the Palestinian Authority are important acts to start with, which we discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” he said.
Their talks came after the weekend saw increased bouts of violence in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza as Palestinians protested the US recognition of the capital. On Sunday, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed a Jerusalem security guard, severely wounding him, having posted on Facebook about his anger over Jerusalem.
Responding to Macron, Netanyahu countered that peace would not be possible unless the Palestinians accepted that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.
“The sooner the Palestinians come to the realization, the sooner we will have peace,” he said.
Netanyahu stressed that the most important thing in any potential peace agreement is for both sides to recognize that the other has a right to exist. “This is what is holding back Israeli-Palestinian peace,” he said.
Netanyahu, in their private talks, reiterated that Israel would not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence north of Israel’s border. He also urged Macron to act to help prevent Iran building weapons factories in Lebanon, and said Israel would take action there if necessary.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Turkey’s president was a brutal dictator who supports Palestinian terrorist groups in their efforts to “kill innocent people,” as a war of words heated up between Israel and Turkey over US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem.
“I am not used to receiving lectures about morality from a leader who bombs Kurdish villagers in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, who helps Iran get around international sanctions, and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, kill innocent people,” said Netanyahu.
“That is not the man who is going to lecture us,” Netanyahu said at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
Israel has long pressed Turkey to end its support for Hamas and not allow Hamas members to live in Turkey.
Netanyahu’s comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to use “all means to fight” against the US recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital.
“Palestine is an innocent victim… As for Israel, it is a terrorist state, yes, terrorist!” Erdogan said. “We will not abandon Jerusalem to the mercy of a state that kills children.”
The Turkish leader has employed sharp rhetoric against Israel almost daily in the wake of Trump officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
On Saturday, Erdogan described Israel as a “state of occupation” that used “terror” against the Palestinians.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid also spoke out against Erdogan, invoking the Armenian genocide to denounce the Turkish president.
“Those who deny the murder of children in the Armenian genocide should not preach morality at us,” Lapid tweeted on Sunday
Relations between Israel and Turkey took a bitter turn Sunday as their leaders traded accusations of involvement in terrorism, days after the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would fight against the controversial declaration, describing Israel as a "terrorist state" that kills children, in a speech in Istanbul.
Hours later Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back, calling his counterpart a leader who bombs Kurdish villagers and supports terrorists, during an official visit to Paris.
The two countries had normalised relations in recent years, but Sunday's flare-up came after Turkey was angered by US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Trump's move has sparked protests in Muslim and Arab countries for four days.
"Palestine is an innocent victim... As for Israel, it is a terrorist state, yes, terrorist!" Erdogan said in a speech in the central Turkish city of Sivas.
"We will not abandon Jerusalem to the mercy of a state that kills children."
Erdogan earlier described the status of Jerusalem, whose eastern sector Palestinians see as the capital of their future state, as a "red line" for Muslims.
Netanyahu was quick to counter the assault when he spoke later during a press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
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