A French government plan to unilaterally recognize Palestine as a state if an international conference to work toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not succeed or is not held at all is perhaps the first time a European power has taken such a dramatic initiative to counter US control of the peace process. Sweden recognized Palestinian statehood last year, and other European nations have made similar moves, such as raising the status of their diplomatic representation with Palestine and increasing sanctions on European institutions or firms that do business with settlement-based Israeli organizations. But probably never before has a major country decided publicly that the US no longer has the ability to reach a final settlement. US-sponsored peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and with under a year left in his presidency, Barack Obama has admitted that a settlement cannot be reached in the time remaining. In fact, for the past 22 months neither he nor John Kerry has even tried. The consequence of that stoppage of effort is that the situation has since deteriorated into the wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis which erupted in October. Paris would thus like to break Washington's long, futile and probably not very serious monopoly on mediation which does not take into account the rights of the Palestinian side while underscoring Washington's clear pro-Israel tilt. France is not out to replace the US in its failed role as mediator. Instead, its initiative is based on changing the negotiation method from US-managed bilateral talks. Not that an international peace conference would work. The 1991 Madrid peace conference is the best, glaring example of how very little could come out of such a world gathering. The symbolic significance of the Madrid conference – for the first time Arab countries and Israel gathered face-to-face - far outweighed its accomplishments which were thin indeed. If an international gathering won't do the trick, France says it will recognize a Palestinian state. That is not the best compensation for the Palestinians. Having a state of their own is infinitely better than being recognized as being a state. Still, for a major European power to confer such a status would be a huge boost for the Palestinians. The move would be so damaging to Israel that already Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply concerned, arguing that the French step would give the Palestinians no incentive to compromise. But why should the Palestinians be forced to compromise on anything? Israel steals Palestinian land, then wants Palestinians to compromise, meaning that they will not get all of it back? This new French Palestinian-Israeli plan might have security motives. It might be an attempt to appease Islamist militants, specifically Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) after the two horrific terrorist attacks in Paris last year. Paris might want to be seen as spearheading a drive that eventually creates a state for the Palestinians. As is often said, if the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is settled, so too the rest of the political problems in the Middle East will end. That claim is dubious, for it is difficult to see the connection between what is happening in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and elsewhere and the Palestinian cause or between terrorist attacks on the streets of Paris and California and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Furthermore, Daesh rarely brings up the Palestinian issue or Israel when it speaks of its grand designs for a caliphate. If France indeed wants to do something that would decrease the threat of other shocking terrorist assaults, that is not an ulterior motive; that is a rightful quest for survival. But France is not being two-faced. It has long advocated the creation of a Palestinian state and it feels the time has come to do something about it.
