French President Emmanuel Macron has gone wobbly on his support of Israel in its war against Hamas. He went so far as to claim that Israel is killing women and children, as though deliberately doing so. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu didn’t appreciate that.

Netanyahu didn’t appreciate hearing Macron’s words as he broke with the other Western countries supporting Israel in the war against Hamas. Macron called for a pause, to be followed up with a ceasefire. He called for the ceasefire – the first Western leader to do so – at a hastily called conference with world leaders who may be interested in sending support to Gaza. Is Macron saying one thing to the West and another to Arab and Muslim countries and their allies? That is what it sounds like. Macron is trying to straddle the fence and it is a doomed exercise.

The prime minister said that Macron’s remarks are factually and morally incorrect. Spare him the moral preening.

During a press conference, Netanyahu said that the French president had “made a serious mistake, factually and morally,” in his allegations that Israel is intentionally bombing civilians.

“It’s Hamas preventing the evacuation of civilians, not Israel. Israel tells them to leave,” Netanyahu said, accusing Hamas of firing on the humanitarian corridor set up for northern Gazans to evacuate and using civilians as human shields.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night bluntly slammed French President Emmanuel Macron over remarks he made a day earlier, in which he criticized Israel for killing babies and the elderly in Gaza and reiterated his call for a ceasefire.

During a press conference, Netanyahu said that the French president had “made a serious mistake, factually and morally,” in his allegations that Israel is intentionally bombing civilians.

“It’s Hamas preventing the evacuation of civilians, not Israel. Israel tells them to leave,” Netanyahu said, accusing Hamas of firing on the humanitarian corridor set up for northern Gazans to evacuate and using civilians as human shields.

“It’s not Israel that locates itself in hospitals, in schools, in UNRWA and UN facilities — it’s Hamas. Therefore, it is not Israel but Hamas that is responsible for harm to civilians,” he argued.

“And I say to the president of France and our other friends — it will reach you too,” Netanyahu continued. “Immunity must not given to terrorists who carry out this double war crime. We are truly doing everything to minimize harm to civilians or noncombatants, but we will not give Hamas the license to murder our citizens without our response.

“We can do without the moral preaching.”

This is war. War is ugly. Innocent lives are lost, that is reality. However, Israel is extremely diligent about sparring as many lives of civilians as possible. The Israeli military is known for warning people before attacks and then using as much precision in its strikes as possible. It is the animals of Hamas who cross their neighbor’s border and murder and rape innocents before daybreak. The people deliberately killing women children and old people are Hamas. Hamas dragged them out of their beds and raped and murdered women in front of their children. They killed old people and dragged them outside. They beheaded babies and took very young children women and old people as hostages.

There is no fence-straddling to be tolerated here. This is a time in history that cries out for moral clarity. There can be no ceasefire, certainly not until the hostages are returned. Ceasefire helps Hamas and will be the destruction of Israel.

Macron visited Israel in the days after October 7 in solidarity. He called for the international coalition against the Islamic State terror group to be expanded to also fight Hamas.

There is pressure domestically on Macron to call for a ceasefire. Macron is caving to the pressure and now calls for a ceasefire. During a peace forum in Paris over the weekend, Macron said that France shares Israel’s willingness to get rid of terrorism. But, he doesn’t agree that bombing Gaza is the way to go.

Then the inevitable walk-back happened. When the criticism began over Macron’s remarks, a French diplomatic source tried to make peace. It turns out that Israeli officials and supporters don’t appreciate hearing Hamas propaganda that Israel is deliberately killing “these babies, these ladies, these old people.”

Following the pushback from Netanyahu and other Israeli officials on Saturday night, a French diplomatic source attempted to walk back the comments, saying that “President Macron never implied, and does not think, that Israeli forces are deliberately targeting civilians. He has been consistently qualifying Hamas’s use of hostages or civilian population as ‘unacceptable blackmail.’”

“While President Macron is aware of Israel’s efforts to prevent collateral damage and facilitate humanitarian access, he believes that more can be done considering the dire humanitarian situation or Gaza’s civilian population,” the source continued. “He therefore believes that a humanitarian pause and eventually a ceasefire are opportune to help the civilian population in Gaza get the much-needed aid and relief.”

That was on Saturday. On Sunday morning, Macron published a letter on the Le Parisien news website. He urged the French people to combat “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism.” It seems to me that those words would have been more helpful as soon as the acts of antisemitism increased after October 7 and the marches and protests in Paris began. He reiterated his support of the fact that Israel has a right to defend herself without qualification. “We want justice, peace, and security for the people of Israel, for the Palestinian people, and for the states of the region,” he concluded, urging unity among the French.

Sounds like surrender to me. There is no “justice, peace, and security for the people of Israel” as long as Hamas exists. Hamas must be destroyed. There is no middle ground.