Macron's UN Farewell: Gaza a 'Spectacle That Should Shame Us All'
In his last General Assembly speech before leaving office in May, the French president turned on Washington’s Gaza diplomacy: “Some boast of a supposed peace. But that peace has not reopened humanitarian access for a single second. Are we simply to stand by and watch this spectacle that should shame us all?” The White House replied that “no one has done more for peace and stability in the region”. King Abdullah of Jordan told the hall that displacement from Gaza had “a name… forced displacement. And that is a war crime”. Netanyahu speaks tomorrow.
Gaza had its day at the UN while the Iran talks took the headlines, and the tone from America’s traditional partners — France, Jordan, Turkey, whose president’s “largest graveyard” description prompted an Israeli walkout — measures how far the ceasefire’s first phase has drifted from its promises: eight Gulf foreign ministers issued a joint demand that Israel meet its phase-one commitments. Macron’s intervention carries the freedom of a leader with nothing left to run for, which is precisely why it lands: it says aloud what allied capitals mutter privately. The White House rebuttal was pro forma; the substantive American reply comes Thursday when Netanyahu takes the podium, on the day Xi dines at the White House. Watch whether the Gulf statement is echoed in the US-Iran channel, where an end to the war on “all fronts” is already Tehran’s demand.