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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 7, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Behind French president's trip to Palestine

By John Catalinotto

French President Jacques Chirac became the first head of state to address the Palestinian legislative council, which was meeting Oct. 23 in Ramallah on the West Bank. Chirac's visit was the third stop in a Middle East tour aimed at raising France's influence in the region.

The Palestinian legislators applauded him especially hard for listing Israeli violations of the Oslo accord. The next day in Amman, Jordan, Chirac called for establishing a Palestinian state.

The Chirac visit raised problems for U.S. imperialism. The U.S. government brokered the Oslo accord, which Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin signed in Washington.

U.S. policymakers want to keep France and the rest of Europe out of the continuing discussions.

The accord granted the Palestinians a severely restricted form of self rule in the Gaza strip and in parts of the West Bank. Despite its shortcomings, it represented concessions won by the heroic Palestinian mass uprising known as the Intifada.

The right-wing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has sabotaged the agreement by indefinitely delaying Israeli military withdrawal from Hebron and allowing new Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Washington wants to keep the Oslo agreement on track, but to do so without any serious break with the Netanyahu government, especially before the U.S. elections. The Clinton administration prefers to pressure Arafat to accept less from the Israelis.

U.S. imperialism is the dominant power in the Middle East. For decades Washington has given extensive military, economic and diplomatic support to Israel, which in turn has been a local police power to enforce imperialist interests, especially against any movement for liberation.

As the chief executive of the French ruling class, Chirac is attempting to expand France's role in the Middle East.

This conflict between Paris and Washington is not confined to the Middle East. In October alone, U.S. and French diplomats expressed sharp differences over the NATO role in Bosnia and over hegemony in parts of Africa.

An open conflict between U.S. and French imperialism can help expose the oppressive role of both countries. It sometimes can provide an opening for peoples and nations struggling for self-determination, as the Palestinians are.

While every opening can provide an opportunity to advance, the basic support for national liberation will continue to be the struggle of the masses themselves and the solidarity of the working class worldwide.

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