Israeli ministers railed against French President Emmanuel Macron after he announced Thursday that Paris would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, with several senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition calling for Jerusalem to annex the West Bank in retaliation.

Netanyahu in his own statement said Macron was recognizing a “state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre.”

“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it.”

“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” the premier asserted.

With Israel likely to take punitive measures against France, as it has done to other countries that have recognized a Palestinian state, some ministers argued that the most fitting reaction would be to annex the territory on which Palestinians hope their future state will be located.

“I thank President Macron for providing yet another compelling reason to finally apply Israeli sovereignty over the historic regions of Judea and Samaria, and to definitively abandon the failed concept of establishing a Palestinian terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote in an English-language tweet.

The far-right minister is opposed to granting equal rights to Palestinians living in areas that he wants Israel to annex.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin said annexing the West Bank would be “a response of historical justice to the shameful decision of the French President.”

“The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, and President Macron’s declaration will not change that,” he asserted.

Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer, meanwhile, called for French Jews to move to Israel.

“The........

© The Times of Israel