Amid Israel-Hamas war, Macron meeting Netanyahu & Abbas in quest for 'long-term negotiated solution'
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Transcript
00:00 Emmanuel Macron is preparing to carry out a vital visit to Israel.
00:05 Macron himself has expressed concern that the war between Israel and Hamas could create divisions here in France.
00:11 France, of course, home to a large Muslim and Jewish population.
00:14 Thousands of people, for instance, rallied in Paris on Sunday demanding an end to the Israeli military operation in Gaza following the Hamas attack.
00:22 As the speaker of the National Assembly was visiting Israel in solidarity, that's Yale Brown Pivet visited two of the kibbutz that were attacked by Hamas.
00:33 Let's get more analysis. We'll bring in Eberhardt Kiener, who is the research professor at the CNRS and a Middle East specialist.
00:41 Thank you very much for joining us, Eberhardt. We have some good news that two more hostages have been released.
00:47 Norit Cooper, age 79, 85-year-old Josip Edeletsic. Can I, if you don't mind, sir, get some reaction from you to this news?
00:58 Yes, of course. Now, I think as usual, we need to be extremely careful. And that has been said already earlier.
01:06 We are seeing very limited releases of hostages. And I suppose we need to wait and see how this will unfold in the next couple of hours, the next couple of days.
01:19 Moving on to Emmanuel Macron with his visit, what do you think that the French president will be hoping to achieve when he lands in Tel Aviv in the coming hours?
01:29 I suppose like President Biden earlier and numerous other European leaders, and not only Europeans, of course, he will try and show solidarity with Israel.
01:41 He will come to Israel in support. He will also obviously try to reassure his domestic audience.
01:52 And as you said a couple of minutes ago, France or many friends of France is divided on the issue.
02:00 Not everybody is of the same opinion. Some people support Israel, others support the Palestinians, possibly not Hamas, but certainly Palestinians.
02:10 And that's, of course, always a little bit like squaring the circle.
02:14 So what he will have to do is to reassure the ones, the others, and especially those in the country who fear that the country is divided and that is bad for the country.
02:24 So it will be playing to the Israeli audience, playing to various domestic audiences.
02:30 But I suppose also and what I heard just not long ago is that he will, like President Biden, in a sense, he will try and argue in favor of a long term negotiated settlement.
02:47 Now, I don't know whether he will say it or not. This is what we saw in the news a little bit earlier.
02:54 But I think the entire question of this hanging over that visit, like over other visits, is to what extent, indeed, he can sort of support those in the country who feel left alone in Israel and yet bring them somehow to accept that the issue in the end needs to be negotiated, maybe not with Hamas, but certainly with other Palestinians.
03:21 So a message of caution, perhaps a message that things need to be somehow delayed in order to perhaps facilitate more releases of hostages, perhaps hopefully a total release of the hostages.
03:35 Well, certainly, I mean, he quite, quite, quite certainly he hopes and I don't know what has been done on the French side to bring about a solution for, say, the French hostages.
03:48 But certainly he will hope to be in Israel at the right moment when possibly some French hostages will be released.
03:57 So that's obviously a major concern as well. But ultimately, I suppose the question is, to what extent this visit, like others, will finally help to bring about, maybe not today and tomorrow and maybe only after some military action, another and a more lasting solution, which has, well, which everybody has over the last couple of years or even decades has neglected.
04:25 Indeed, one imagines it's what everybody wants and sometimes one wonders what's going through the minds of the people who don't seem to want that.
04:32 One of the complicated matters, of course, of this story, more hostages in need of help, liberation, safety in some way, shape or form.
04:40 We've had two more released tonight, following two last Friday.
04:44 Eberhard Kienle of the CNRS, Middle East Specialist, as we heard.
04:48 Thank you so very much for joining us and sharing your assessment with us.
04:51 We really appreciate it. Eberhard Kienle of the CNRS here in France.