Macron Embraces a Palestinian Mirage
'Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,' Mr. Macron said Thursday. 'In doing so,' he wrote to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, 'France will make a decisive contribution to peace in the Middle East.'
It's hard to see how. A Palestinian state doesn't exist, though it's recognized by some 147 nations, many of which did so with the Soviet Union in 1988. 'Here's the good news,' President Trump commented on Mr. Macron's move on Friday. 'What he says doesn't matter. It's not going to change anything.'
France isn't involved in any of the serious diplomacy, so it can ignore the real obstacles—Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state in any borders, Hamas's power and popularity, and Israeli reluctance following the hard education of the second intifada, Gaza disengagement and the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
College Basketball Coach Blames Barack Obama For 'Dividing' United States
College Basketball Coach Blames Barack Obama For 'Dividing' United States originally appeared on The Spun. For the second time this week, Barack Obama has been called out by Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl's feud with Obama started earlier this week when the former president of the United States shared a New York Times article about the children in Gaza. Obama's social media post included this message: "While a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel's military operations, these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation." Shortly after Obama shared this message with the public, he received a harsh reply from Pearl. "You gave billions to Iran and Hamas creating this mess and not one word from you calling for THEM to release the hostages, surrender and end the War," Pearl wrote on X. "Tell Hamas to 1) Quit stealing and reselling aid 2) Stop attacking GHF workers who are feeding Gazans. 3) Leave and end suffering." Pearl wasn't done criticizing Obama. He had an awful lot to say about the 44th U.S. president during an appearance on OutKick's "Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich." The longtime college basketball coach suggested that Obama is responsible for America being so divided right now. "I get so frustrated when I hear what a terrible country we are or how racist we are, how this is not the land of opportunity for everybody," Pearl said, via Fox News Digital. "Look, we've got a lot to work on, and there is racism that absolutely does exist, and it's wrong. But it's a lot better for my players than it was for their fathers, and their fathers' fathers. I want my guys to recognize that there are going to be obstacles, but not roadblocks. That's what Barack Obama did. "However, as our president, I disagreed with so many of his policies. I thought that rather than uniting us as a country ... he divided us. Everything was black and white. Everything was [about] the obstacles that were against my players from being successful. I'm trying to teach my guys 'I don't want you to work at Subway - I want you to own five of them.' I think in many ways, Barack Obama told a different story." Obama hasn't responded to these remarks from Pearl. We're not even sure if he's aware of what's being Basketball Coach Blames Barack Obama For 'Dividing' United States first appeared on The Spun on Aug 1, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Aug 1, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
X criticises Online Safety Act - and warns it's putting free speech in the UK at risk
The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk's social network X has warned. New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X - as well as sites hosting pornography - to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18. The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content. X has warned the act's laudable intentions were "at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach". It said: "When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of 'online safety'. "It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made." X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight - and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, "encouraging over-censorship". "A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It's safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK," it said. A UK government spokesperson said it is "demonstrably false" that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech. "As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression," they added. Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed. In response to the petition, the government said it had "no plans" to reverse the Online Safety Act. Reform UK's leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to "state suppression of genuine free speech" and said his party would ditch the regulations. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were "on the side of predators" - to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle's comments "absolutely disgusting". Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies - that collectively run 34 pornography sites - are complying with new age-check requirements. Read more from Sky News: These companies - 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd - run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said. The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers. It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites. Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.
Wall Street Journal
35 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Why Isn't Enough Food Getting Into Gaza?
JERUSALEM—About 10 miles stand between truckloads of food and flour and the more than two million hungry Palestinians who need it. Yet only a trickle is reaching them. The biggest obstacle right now between stockpiles of food just beyond the border and Gaza's most vulnerable people—starving children, women, elderly and injured—is a breakdown of law and order. Chaotic mobs ransack every food-bearing truck that enters, aid workers say. The masses are largely made up of desperate civilians, armed criminals looking to sell it on the black market—or a dangerous mix of both.
