Jewish French MP Meyer Habib on Monday responded to the interview that French President Emmanuel Macron gave to the BBC over the weekend, in which he claimed that Israel "should stop killing women and babies in Gaza".
"No, Mr. President Emmanuel Macron. Israel does not bomb children, women and the elderly. Israel is simply at war," Habib wrote. "It is fighting the barbarism of Hamas, which committed crimes against humanity. Crimes that were screened in my presence and which you saw with your own eyes in your meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in his office."
He added, "Israel respects the laws of war. Israel is defending itself after the most terrible pogrom in its history. 1,400 dead.40 of them are French.This is equivalent to 12,000 dead here in France!!241 hostages of which 8 are French, 8 citizens of whom you are the President!At the moment of this writing, they are 30 meters underground!Babies, Holocaust survivors, women."
"How would France react if barbarians raped and killed pregnant women in front of their families, took out a fetus to cut off its head, put a baby in an oven in front of its parents, burned entire families alive, beheaded children?" continued Habib.
"Yes, it is true that sometimes civilians are killed. That is what happens in war, Mr. President! But that is the sole responsibility of these barbarians. They take shelter in civilian buildings and set up their headquarters under hospitals and schools!"
"On the contrary, Israel creates humanitarian corridors and accompanies, at a risk to its soldiers, Palestinian citizens to southern Gaza to protect them from Hamas who wants to massacre them! Would anyone have dared to ask France for a ceasefire after the November 13 attacks?"
Habib also wondered: "Didn't the Allies, including the Free French Forces, bomb Dresden and Berlin in order to eliminate Nazism and kill Hitler? This caused almost a hundred thousand civilian casualties! As we all remember, in 2015, in our war against ISIS, the international coalition led by France caused at least 15,000 civilian deaths in Raqqa and Mosul. War is sometimes a necessary evil."
"Mr. President, I was part of your delegation during your visit to Israel three weeks ago: You had very strong words to support Israeli democracy which is under attack. You declared that Israel has the right to defend itself! You even proposed an international coalition against Hamas based on the model of the 2015 coalition against ISIS! Unfortunately, your most recent remarks are being exploited by Jean-Luc Melenchon and LFI, some of whose party members advocate terrorism and support Hamas through a scandalous denial of reality!"
"Israel is a very small country in size. The only Jewish country in the world. It is the West's first wall in the war against terrorism that scarred us in the not-too-distant past," concluded Habib.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the French President's comments in a press conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz on Saturday night, saying that Macron "made a grave error" and adding, "We don't need these moral lectures."
A French political official later rejected Netanyahu's criticism, clarifying that Macron "has not changed his position" on Israeli action against Hamas but believes that Israel can and should do more to prevent harm to Palestinian Arab civilians in Gaza.
On Sunday, Macron called President Isaac Herzog to clarify the comments, telling Herzog that he does not and did not intend to accuse Israel of intentionally harming innocent civilians in the campaign against Hamas.
Macron also emphasized that he unequivocally supports Israel's right and duty to self-defense and expressed his support for Israel's war against Hamas.