French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state and championing of an upcoming United Nations conference on the subject despite U.S. opposition has received a frosty reception from Senate Republicans.

France is set to co-chair “The High Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” with Saudi Arabia at the U.N. headquarters in New York next week. Several described it as a distraction from U.S. efforts to secure peace in the region while praising the Trump administration’s decision to urge U.N. member states against participating. 

The U.S. sent a diplomatic demarche on Tuesday discouraging countries from attending the summit, “which we view as counterproductive to ongoing, life-saving efforts to end the war in Gaza and free hostages,” according to the cable. The demarche, first reported by Reuters, stated that any government that took “anti-Israel actions” after the conference would be viewed as acting in opposition to U.S. foreign policy priorities and warned of potential diplomatic consequences.

“It certainly sounds like they take us for granted and think that they can act without consequence. France has a long history of doing this in foreign policy. They’re consistently a problem and have been forever, but I’d say it’s very unhelpful of them at this present moment,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Jewish Insider. 

“Well, it’s Macron. The Bob Dylan song ‘Blowing in the Wind’ was named after him,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said. “He’s powerless right now, and he’s got too much time on his hands.”

Asked what the response should be from the U.S. if Macron continues with this approach, Kennedy replied, “Unless it gets out of hand, I would just ignore them. Nobody’s scared of France. Germany runs Europe, not France. Right now, I know the Brits have left the EU but they’re still part of NATO, and the two countries that matter right now are Germany and the U.K. I love France … but I meant what I said, Macron, he’s lost all of his power. He’s erratic.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he spoke to French officials to try to dissuade them from continuing their Palestinian statehood push, but did not divulge how they responded. “Now is not the time. That’s what I told the French,” Graham told JI.

“They’ve generally had a cozy relationship with Iran that is purely driven by economic ties, maybe some historic ties. It makes no sense to me. I don’t think it’s well received by our administration,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said.

Pressed on if France’s efforts would have an impact on U.S. foreign policy, Tillis replied: “I don’t know. I think it all depends on how far it goes. I think they’re still in the thought phase. It will be interesting to see if anything meaningful comes out of it, then I think the administration will probably take a more definitive position against it.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) offered a similar take, telling JI, “France will be France. When they need our help, they always come ask us. Right now they’re trying to be tough, so let them stand there on their own ground, by all means. What they do doesn’t change what we decide to do.”