December 08, 2023
History Today
Israel Needs a de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle was the greatest hero of France in the last hundred years. A general in the French Army when the Nazis invaded in 1940, he left for London rather than be part of a collaborationist regime set up in the puppet Vichy France state created after the blitzkrieg Nazi victory.
From London he organized the “Free French” forces that aided the Allies in World War II and returned to Paris in 1944 after the liberation to set up an interim government. He became the first Prime Minister of France after World War II, but only lasted in that role for a few months before slipping into retirement. He would have stayed there if it hadn’t been for a crisis in Algeria.
Algeria had been seized by France in the 19 th century, and almost 900,000 French settlers had moved there to live. These settlers, known as “Pieds Noirs” saw themselves as completely part of France, and Algeria was in fact legally part of France and not a French colony, unlike the rest of the French colonial empire. But this status did not apply to the Arab and Berber residents of Algeria, who were denied self-determination.
In the 1950s, the European colonial empires were disintegrating rapidly. India and Pakistan got their freedom in 1947, but much of Africa was still in British or French hands. This was not going to last, and independence movements were gaining strength everywhere. By the late 1950s, it was obvious that these colonies would become their own free nations. French government policy was willing to accept this process, except in Algeria. The nearly million Pieds Noirs wanted Algeria to remain French, and keep the Arabs and Berbers in their place. The Algerians organized a liberation movement, the FLN, and full-scale armed rebellion began. By 1958, France was in turmoil over what to do. The Pieds Noirs and their allies in the French military essentially launched a coup in 1958, seizing control of Algeria and even the island of Corsica near France.
In response, the French government turned to the war hero de Gaulle. Crucially he had the support of the mass of the French people and the Pieds Noirs, who felt that he would be supportive of their cause. De Gaulle came back to power, and forced the coup makers in the army to disband.
The Fourth French Republic had a weak President, and de Gaulle set out to change that. He put forth a new constitution creating the Fifth Republic, and with it he became a powerful French President. But he surprised the Pieds Noirs by coming to terms with Algerian independence.
By 1962, de Gaulle negotiated the withdrawal of France from Algeria and handed over power to the FLN. This was a huge disappointment to the Pieds Noirs, but received the backing of the French public in a referendum as they did not want to fight an endless guerrilla war in Algeria. Once France left, the Pieds Noirs decided to leave too. Within a few months of Algerian independence almost all of the French settlers had moved back to France.
Israel’s situation in the West Bank has obvious parallels to the French in Algeria. Israel has moved 700,000 settlers into the West Bank, and those settlers completely reject the idea of an Israeli withdrawal and the creation of a Palestinian state. These settlers insist that Israel keep its boot on the Palestinian neck for eternity, so they can carry out their religious agenda of living on what they consider land given to them by God himself.
What Israel needs now is a de Gaulle. Someone who has the insight to realize that permanent occupation of the Palestinians is not viable. The Hamas attack of October clearly shows that permanent occupation means permanent strife and bloodshed. There are now 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the sea. They fear and loathe each other too much to live in a single secular state, so there must be two states. The Palestinians will have to make do with only 23% of the land, making up Gaza and the West Bank. But Israel cannot keep insisting on carving up the West Bank to satisfy its settlers’ agenda. There needs to be an Israeli de Gaulle that agrees to leave the West Bank and live as equals with a Palestinian state as its neighbor. The settlers will hate this, but just like the Pieds Noirs, they will choose to leave and move back to Israel. Only then will this conflict end. While Israel needs a de Gaulle, the US, with its massive economic, diplomatic, and military clout, should make clear to Israel that once this war in Gaza is over, it is time to settle with the Palestinians in a just manner.
