French Middle East political realism

Author: Rosa Maria Young

When last April President Carter traveled to the Middle East, his trip was criticized not only by the Bush administration and many in the US, but by Israel and other countries, especially for his meetings with the Hamas (see our article “President Carter upsets the Bush administration” from April 25). Now, as described in an article in the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, it turns out that the French government has been maintaining some contact with the leaders of Hamas for several months to try to better understand their positions.

Until now, the relations between France and the Islamic group of Hamas was limited - since June 2007 when Hamas took by force the Gaza Strip - to the intelligence service. But since last August, the French diplomats posted in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem were allowed to renew political contacts with the Hamas. It was interesting to note that talking about Carter’s meeting with Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the militant group, the French President Sarkozy said “I don’t allow myself to judge what everybody does, maybe one day it could be useful (the contact)”. In reality the Gaza meeting between the high ranking French diplomat Yves Aubin de La Messuzière and representatives of Hamas had just taken place.

The French are just showing political realism. The strategy of isolating Hamas has not worked and peace can not be achieved only with half the Palestinian people. Nevertheless, the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner emphasized that there were no negotiations with Hamas, which has been labeled a terrorist group by both the United States and the European Union. “This are not relations, they are contacts. We are not the only ones to have them,” said Kouchner, adding “the real discussion is between the Palestinians.”
Meanwhile in the US, President Carter must and should feel vindicated. On the other hand President Bush, who at the end of two disastrous terms was hoping to achieve a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel before leaving office in January, must surely feel angry at yet another possible failure. With Hamas nowhere in Bush’s plan, peace between Israel and Palestine remains elusive.
In the meantime, while Israel last week celebrated the 60th anniversary of its creation as a country, the Palestinians were celebrating the Nakba Day or “day of the catastrophe” which marks the beginning of the 1948 Palestinian exodus.