Macron slams French ministers and journalists over leaked Israel comments

BRUSSELS — French President Emmanuel Macron accused his own ministers and journalists of “a lack of professionalism” for leaking controversial remarks he made about Israel at a closed-door Cabinet meeting.

Macron earlier this week told ministers that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not “ignore United Nations decisions.” His comments were leaked and later confirmed by his Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in a parliamentary hearing. Macron was also quoted as saying “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a U.N. decision.”

The comments, referencing the U.N. General Assembly’s November 1947 vote that terminated the British mandate of Palestine and split the land into a Jewish and an Arab state, provoked fury from Netanyahu — who said that Israel was founded by Holocaust survivors “including from the [Nazi collaborationist] Vichy regime in France” — and anger among France’s Jewish community.

But Thursday evening in Brussels, Macron tried to douse the controversy by tackling his government and the media during a press conference at the end of an EU leaders’ summit.

Ministers “must respect the rules and be ethical, and not share comments that are either truncated, false or taken out of context,” Macron told reporters. The French president said he was “stupefied” to read stories about what he allegedly said.

“I speak enough about the situation in the Middle East and I don’t need ventriloquists,” he said.

The French government is headed by the conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier and includes ministers from Macron’s centrist camp, but also from the center-right Les Républicains party. So it is not always totally aligned with the president.

Tensions have been rising between Macron and Netanyahu as Israel continues its strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon — a country that has long historical ties to France — especially after the Israel Defense Forces hit U.N. peacekeepers in the country’s south.

Macron also recently called for a halt to arms deliveries to Israel in an interview with French radio, which triggered an angry response from Netanyahu, who declared “shame” on the French president.

France had last month attempted to broker a 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which was scuppered when Netanyahu ordered strikes against the group’s headquarters, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah.