Like the equivalent resolution passed by the British House of Commons, the French National Assembly’s recognition of a fictive Palestinian state is a purely symbolic gesture. Although passed by the currently dominant left-wing coalition, the law will no doubt be ignored by the reigning left-wing government, which has shown uncharacteristic sympathy for Israel. Above all, writes Michel Gurfinkiel, the vote is a sign of the French left’s pending electoral collapse:
The unraveling of the French left may be the key to an intriguing paradox: why in the world did the parliamentary left insist upon a foreign-policy resolution that the governing left had no intention of implementing? Dogmatism may be at stake: supporting the state of Palestine, whatever that means and even if it might turn into an Islamic State of Palestine, is part of left and far-left mantras worldwide. A further explanation may be that the left’s last hope to survive in the coming election is to garner as much support as possible from the immigrant Muslim community, which will provide an average of 5 to 10 percent of the vote.
Finally, [President François] Hollande and [Prime Minister Manuel] Valls are so unpopular among their own constituency that the entire socialist and left-wing political class needs to distance itself from them on almost all issues, either domestic or international.
[Nicolas] Sarkozy, who was elected on November 30 as the new chairman of the conservative UMP party—an important step for being reelected as president in 2017—campaigned against the Palestine resolution. This point will not be lost on pro-Israel voters in the future, nor on a growing number of voters, both on the right and the left, that are concerned with the rise of jihadism in Europe as well as in the Middle East.
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