With no let up in sight as Israel works to defend itself from barrages of Hezbollah rockets, the goal increasingly looks more like dismantling the terrorist group entirely than simply restoring the deterrence against the terrorist group that existed prior to the outbreak of war a little over a year ago. Prime Minister Netanyahu said as much in a new interview with the French television channel Cnews, evoking the need to “free Lebanon from the terror of Hezbollah and Iran.”

“Lebanon was conquered by Iran, not Israel, he said, adding that “We are fighting Hezbollah. There have been demonstrations of joy because we have eliminated their leaders throughout the Middle East, because they know that Iran is a terror organization.”

Comparing Hamas terrorists to “Nazis,” he said he was fighting them “in the name of the French.” Referring to the murder  of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty at the hands of a radicalized Muslim as well as the Bataclan and Nice terrorist attack, Netanyahu told the channel that Hamas terrorists  “would kill all the French if they could.”

Because “this is above all a war of civilization against barbarism,” he said, he called on France to “support Israel” in this war “which is also yours,” adding it is  war which “will not end until all the hostages are freed.” He called freeing the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza  “a sacred objective” and that “We will not accept any other result than victory.”

When he was asked about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, he denied any direct targeting of civilians. On the contrary, he claimed to be sending humanitarian trucks to Gaza — trucks that are apparently still being impeded by Hamas. “We let these trucks enter Gaza. It’s Hamas that’s starving them,” Mr. Netanyahu said, adding that “We are waging a just war against terrorists who use citizens as human shields.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s perseverance has often put him at odds with President Macron, who has called for an embargo on French arms sales to Israel and more recently has been pushing for a ceasefire in Lebanon. On Thursday, a hastily convened international conference on Lebanon — that was Mr. Macron’s idea —  was scheduled to take place at Paris.

Some of what Mr. Netanyahu had to say seemed to be directed at Mr. Macron’ ears. “If Iran were to conquer the Middle East, you [France] would be next,” he said. “What we want is to put a force in place to maintain the peace,” he added, insisting that a peace that might come with a ceasefire would only allow “Hezbollah to arm itself thanks to Iran.” Better, he said, to push for  “a permanent solution to allow Israel and Lebanon to be at peace.”

Mr. Macron’s zig zag approach to the conflict in the Middle East has undercut his role as any kind of mediator, and Mr. Netanyahu recently accused the French leader of a willful distortion of history with respect to the founding of Israel. 

Mr. Netanyahu said in Wednesday’s interview that he is “extremely disappointed in Emmanuel Macron,” adding that “He supported us at the start of the war, but little by little, he adopted a position against our common interests.” He accused Mr. Macron of having “put an embargo on Israel, while Iran did not embargo Hezbollah or Hamas.” He said that “We expect democracies to stand by us, to support us.”

Regarding the International Criminal Court’s recent request for arrest warrants against him and the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, Mr. Netanyahu said that “Nothing is going to stop me: It is the survival of free societies that depends on it. We will not be intimidated. We will continue until victory.”

Several countries, including America, India, Russia, and Israel, do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. 

While Mr. Netanyahu’s path forward is clear, with Israel still at war and thousands of Israelis still unable to return to their homes near the border with southern Lebanon, for Mr. Macron the tightrope act will likely continue given domestic and European pressures.

France has Europe’s largest Jewish population as well as its largest population of Muslims, and as a former colonial power sees itself as a latter day steward of events in the Middle East and North Africa.

Also, according to former a former French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, “France has always been antisemitic.” In the latest example, a man was photographed riding the Paris métro wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “anti-Jew.” 

 Over the past 12 months incidents of antisemitism in France have skyrocketed.  At the beginning of August, a former interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said that 887 antisemitic acts had been recorded in the first half of 2024, which is almost three times more than during the same period in 2023.

Those figures lend credence to Mr. Netanyahu’s assertion that beyond the regional conflict in the Middle East, the “war of civilization against barbarism” is, in a manner of speaking, being fought in France too.