France becomes the first G7 country to recognize Palestine, following President Macron’s announcement—drawing swift responses from the U.S. and Israel.
United States: Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that France would recognize an independent Palestinian state, an unexpected and critical step aimed at reviving the two-state solution quest, which comes amid the persistence of the horrors of war in Gaza.
France is the first in the Group of Seven industrialized states that include the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Japan to acknowledge Palestine.
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It has a historical relevance too, as, from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 until the United States assumed this position in 1967, France was by far Israel’s greatest Western ally and most valuable security-guarantor.
Angrily denouncing the French move, Israel and the United States maintain that this gives Hamas an incentive to commit its grisly massacre against Israel, in the south on Oct. 7, 2023, msnbc.com reported.
France becomes the first G7 country to recognize Palestine as a state, humiliating Donald Trump:
— EM (@EXECUTIVEXMEDIA) July 26, 2025
Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine.
I will… pic.twitter.com/aOaghmdMWJ
But the very reverse is the case. Palestinian politics are of two types.
It has been split since the first intifada (uprising) against Israeli rule in 1987 between two major parties, Fatah (the main party running the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority that runs the small self-ruled Palestinian zones in the occupied West Bank) and Hamas (which has been controlling a de facto government in the Gaza ever since it evicted Fatah violently in 2007).
The range of deviation is difficult to exaggerate. Fatah is a nationalist movement and a secular party that wants a negotiated two-state solution.
Hamas demands an Islamist polity that covers all of Palestine, in other words, Israel and the occupied territories.
Fatah believes in negotiating, whereas Hamas believes in the armed struggle. Both parties do not agree on much except that they are Palestinians, as msnbc.com reported.
Much of what is good in one will hinder the other. Israel has realized this and has been taking advantage of it for many decades.
Over many years, cash transfers from Qatari and other donors through Israel have been eager to activate the Hamas rule in Gaza.