In his United Nations speech Tuesday, Marcon was accused of vote-hunting when he claimed that Hamas, the terrorist group that has controlled Gaza since 2006, “has never operated in the West Bank."
The French government moved quickly to clarify Macron’s remarks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, and a person close to Macron, subsequently said the French president meant that Hamas does not govern the West Bank.
“It’s disgraceful to the French people, to the victims of Muslim terror, that he would say that,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) said on “Washington Watch” Wednesday.
The so-called West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, is located along the Jordan River. It is wedged between Israel to the east and Jordan to the west.
Israel captured Judea and Samaria during the Six Day War in 1967.
The West Bank is currently ruled by the Palestinian Authority, the governing authority that is itself led by the Fatah political party.
Fatah attempted to share power with Hamas two decades ago, but that partnership was short-lived and a civil war broke out. That armed conflict ended with Fatah controlling the West Bank, but Hamas conducts terrorist operations in West Bank in a direct political conflict with its rival Fatah.
“Hamas terrorists carry out attacks against Jews almost every day," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in response to Macron. "They have murdered countless Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria. Ignorance is no excuse for erasing their blood."
Ironically, a glaring recent is example is Sunday’s West Bank shooting of a father of six who held dual citizenship in Israel and France. It happened on the even of Yom Kippur, Judaism’s most sacred holiday, The Times of Israel reported.
A Palestinian gunman shot Netanel Shukrun while firing into a group of Israelis. Reuters reports that Hamas praised the shooting but did not claim responsibility.
Islam taking over France
Macron “says these things because France has allowed their nation to be flooded with mainstream Muslims, who do not share traditional French values, and now he feels the need to appease them,” Fine said.
Among people ages 18-59 in metropolitan France, about 10% identified as Muslim in a 2019-20 survey.
Islam was the country's second-largest religious affiliation, behind Catholicism.
The same survey found that 44% of immigrants identified as Muslim and 48% of people with two immigrant parents identified as Muslim.
“What we see in France is a warning sign about what will happen in the United States if we do not take this threat more seriously,” Fine, who is Jewish, said.
Judea and Samaria have a deep and important place in Jewish heritage. The leftist claim that the territory is “occupied” is way off the mark, Fine said.
“When Moses led the Jewish people to the promised land in Exodus, where he could not go, where they entered was Judea and Samaria. It is the heart root, the heartbeat, of the Jewish people.”
Comments from political leaders such as Macron also have a deep connection — with the need to remain in office, Fine said.
“I don't even know that they believe them, but having now allowed mainstream Islam to run rampant in their countries, they now have to cater to these people for votes.”
Americans need to take seriously the threat of Muslim immigration, Fine said.
“We will see our politicians start to do it as well if we continue to import into this country people who hate our values,” he said.
