As long as Trump's got his back? Netanyahu defies international pressure over Gaza
Description
It will soon be two years since Israel endured its worst day of bloodshed and terror in its history. At the time here in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish community, a majority expected and even supported a forceful reaction. Nearly two years on, the sympathy has long waned: yes, Hamas still holds hostages but public opinion has long turned, long before a summer of daily images of desperate Gazans braving bullets to reach aid distribution points and the United Nations now formally labelling the situation as a famine. Is it a tipping point? Yes and no.
Traditional Western allies are certainly banding together to up the pressure on Israel over its stranglehold on Gaza and the increased destruction of Palestinian livelihoods in the West Bank, but all Benjamin Netanyahu needs is a single ally, the strongest one, and he's got it: the United States.
To French President Emmanuel Macron's coalition of countries ready to recognise a Palestinian state at UN Week next month, the new US ambassador to France replies that Paris is stoking anti-Semitism. If Washington's OK with the crushing of civilians in Gaza and a further land grab in the West Bank, then what’s to be done?
Produced by Ilayda Habip, Aurore Laborie, Alessandro Xenos and Charles Wente.
United States
