The time of predators

Isabelle Lasserre – Are you optimistic about the Gaza ceasefire and Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan?

Pierre Servent - This agreement makes me think of a hemophiliac trying to navigate a razor-blade factory. The dangers and the obstacles are many. There's a lot left unsaid, especially on Benyamin Netanyahu's side. But this is the first and only glimmer of hope for the region in the two years since October 7. I'm very critical of Donald Trump, whom I regard as a fascist who is manhandling his country. But I have to admit that his brutal methods – the fact that he twisted Benyamin Netanyahu's arm and succeeded in bringing about a 20-point plan that refers, however allusively, to a Palestinian state – allow for a degree of optimism. It's also clear that a number of Arab countries such as Egypt and the Gulf monarchies, as well as the Europeans, are trying to build on this fragile hope. Perhaps I'm over-confident, but it seems to me that there might be enough momentum, in terms of governance and international military intervention, to control the cataclysmic situation in Gaza.

I. L. - How do you assess the role of France and Emmanuel Macron in the Middle East crisis?

P. S. - France has played an important role in recognizing a Palestinian state, and in bringing other major countries on board. The fact that it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and has long been involved in these events, without necessarily being able to control them, allowed it to jumpstart the movement.  I believe that President Macron and French diplomacy created  the necessary momentum, and that President Trump, realizing that Benyamin Netanyahu was doing as he pleased (including making the huge mistake of carrying out a strike on Qatar), has retaken control. It wasn't France that concluded the agreement, it wasn't France that put pressure on Benyamin Netanyahu, it wasn't France that rallied the Arab countries by cajoling and threatening - in the way that only Trump knows how - but France nonetheless helped to build this edifice. Historians will no doubt write pages and pages on the 2024 [French parliamentary] dissolution.  President Macron is a UFO who never fails to surprise, but in my opinion, recognizing the Palestinian state will remain to his credit.

I. L. - Do you think the Abraham Accords will survive events in the Middle East? Will Trump be able to extend them to Saudi Arabia?

P. S. - I think they've been saved from the abyss. The warlike policies of the Israeli government - the destruction of Hezbollah, the relentless attack on Hamas, the rather clever attack on Iran's nuclear facilities with the help of Donald Trump - were threatening the survival of the Abraham Accords and jeopardizing their possible extension to Saudi Arabia. Why? Because Israel's actions were not part of a larger political project. When a democracy wages war for war's sake, as Israel is doing, it prevents itself from building for …