Macron’s vision and the concept of reforming the Palestinian Authority

By Hassan Asfour
The French president has assumed an unprecedentedly active role regarding the aggressive war on the Gaza Strip and in building a global coalition for a “two-state solution” in partnership with Saudi Arabia, since his visit to Egypt in April 2025 and his trip to the city of al-Arish where he visited wounded Palestinians in its hospitals — the first president to do so as a “humanitarian initiative” with a political dimension.

Recently France entered into a public political confrontation with Israel and its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in what amounted to, in the author’s words, a “political lesson” in the meaning of anti-Semitism. For the first time Paris has gone so far as to regard Netanyahu as a danger to the Israeli state — a characterization that has begun to appear, in varying forms, in angry statements from several countries, and was made explicit by the Netherlands’ foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra, who resigned in protest over his country’s stance on the Gaza war.

France’s renewed activism and its changed stance toward Israel and its war on Gaza are part of a reading of global political shifts, especially following Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his strategy of distancing relations from European states and NATO — a strategic reversal dating back to 1948 — while moving to build a “special partnership” with Russia and China beyond rhetorical commitments. That shift risks pushing Europe outside the emerging new polarity without major fanfare.

In the context of French efforts toward a “two-state solution” conference and a halt to the Gaza war, President Macron has put forward what can be called “Macron’s vision,” which includes “a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the delivery of large-scale humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, the deployment of a stabilization mission in Gaza. We are working to ensure the disarmament of Hamas, to remove it from any authority in Gaza the following day, to reform and strengthen the Palestinian Authority, and to fully rebuild the Gaza Strip.”

The elements of Macron’s vision may be the clearest, and perhaps the only, plan that sets out a defined course for the war in Gaza and the day after — linking Gaza to the Palestinian Authority and viewing the Strip as part of it — in direct opposition to the Trump-Netanyahu position that treats Gaza as a separate entity.

What is particularly noteworthy is what Macron has repeatedly highlighted: the item concerning reform of the Palestinian Authority, which used President Mahmoud Abbas’s message “to him and to bin Salman” without clarifying what form of reform is required.

Will the reform be for a Palestinian state that is supposed to be declared after the “two-state” conference, or will the Authority continue in its current role?

Can political system reforms take place in the absence of an elected parliament with the right to hold the president and cabinet to account, to grant and withdraw confidence?

If Israel refuses to allow general elections, can they be held through unconventional methods that are subsequently recognized by states seeking reform?

Are there specific conditions for participants in the electoral process and under what rules and principles would they operate?

If elections do not take place, will reforms be confined to the existing institutions — in other words, a reshuffling of positions?

Do reforms include the composition and structure of institutions, or do they pertain to the political objectives and educational orientations that Trump and Netanyahu repeat as endless conditions?

Will the inability of the Palestinian presidency and the official establishment to carry out reforms affect recognition of a Palestinian state?

These are questions the Palestinian authorities must confront before attending the two-state conference, and they must provide full clarity on them, especially since several countries have made such issues a condition for recognizing a Palestinian state.

Certainly, meeting these demands will not be easy, and President Abbas’s promises in his letter to Macron and bin Salman may not amount to commitments to specific reforms. What is required is real work, not the usual diplomatic gamesmanship — time is no longer measured in water but in the blood of a people and of a polity.

Note: China presented a historic display on the 80th anniversary of its victory over the Japanese invaders and the end of World War II. The parade included, as part of it, the presence of Putin and Kim Jong Un, reinforcing a partnership of a kind not seen before. At the end of the military display 80,000 “peace doves” were released — power, sigh; peace, sigh — and the choice is for those who choose, O choosers of choice.

Special note: Israel’s head of state tried to be clever with the Vatican, claiming the pope had requested a meeting with him. The Vatican’s “Leo” office replied tersely that it is accustomed to accommodating others’ requests to meet with him — a neat rebuke, although it would have been much harsher if they had said, “Go away, Herzl — someone like you soils the ‘holy’ place.” But it happened.