Vive la France

The JPost reported

The French Foreign Ministry on Wednesday circulated comments made by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe last week saying that any solution to the Middle East conflict would need to recognize Israel as the nation-state for the Jewish people.

[“France has a very clear position that joins that of Spain and all of our European partners: It is that there will be no solution to the conflict in the Middle East without recognition of two nation-states for two peoples. The nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people, and the nation-state of Palestine for the Palestinian people. There is no getting away from this,” he said.]

Israeli diplomatic officials reacted very positively to Juppe’s statement, saying it was an indication that the Europeans were moving in the direction of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s position that recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people must be part of the parameters for future negotiations with the Palestinians

Israeli diplomatic officials said Juppe’s comment was significant on two counts...The second significant element, according to the official, was that Juppe’s comment about the “nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people” seemed a clear signal as to the type of language France would like to see in the Palestinian statehood resolution in order to gain its support. The official also said it was significant that the comment had been made at a press conference of the Spanish and French foreign ministers, not one between, for instance, the German and Italian foreign ministers, whose positions against the Palestinian UN vote are well known.

and Evelyn Gordon expressed her feelings so:
 

Kudos to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government for finally breaking a European taboo. At a press conference in Madrid last week, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe publicly declared that “there will be no solution to the conflict in the Middle East without recognition of two nation-states for two peoples. The nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people, and the nation-state of Palestine for the Palestinian people.”...This is truly groundbreaking. Until now, no EU country has been willing to state publicly that an Israeli-Palestinian agreement must recognize Israel as the Jews’ nation-state, though the EU routinely details the concessions it expects Israel to make.

By the way, Le Monde, if my French is adequate, doesn't mention that Jewish character aspect:

"Les paramètres [de la négociation], c'est la frontière de 1967 avec des échanges mutuellement agréés et la question des garanties et de sécurité et, dans un second temps, dans le cadre d'un accord global, la question des réfugiés et de Jérusalem"

Same bias at L'Express

Here it is

Le ministre français a estimé qu'il y avait "une bonne chance pour que le Quartette (Etats-Unis, Russie, Onu, Union européenne) lance un appel aux parties à renégocier sur ces bases-là: renonciation au terrorisme et à la violence, acceptation des accords paix antérieurs, abandon de toute autre réclamation une fois que l'accord est conclu et surtout l'objectif de deux Etats nations pour deux peuples".

That doesn't, though, translate as " The nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people, and the nation-state of Palestine for the Palestinian people".

In any case, some people have a problem with this:

Demanding that Israel be recognized as the "national home" of a Jewish American, Canadian, South African or Argentine becomes problematic for many more liberal and secular Jews. Many Jewish Americans who've grown up with the melting-pot values of integration are not entirely comfortable with the idea that their religion assigns them a "national home" elsewhere - a 2007 survey of American Jewish attitudes to Israel found that only 54% of those under the age of 35 were "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state."

The uniqueness of the Jews is that you'll always be able to find a Jew or a group of Jews who, despite the danger and illogical elements in their stand, will take a view in direct opposition to the well-being of other Jews.