An Israeli official said that the prime minister offered to approve the visit if Macron called off his initiative to recognize a Palestinian state. (JNS)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned down a request by French President Emmanuel Macron to visit the Jewish state, a former French lawmaker told Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster Wednesday. The Hebrew news report cited an Israeli official as saying that the prime minister offered to approve the visit if Macron called off his initiative to recognize a Palestinian state, but that the French president refused. Netanyahu wrote a letter to Macron last month in which he accused the French president of contributing to antisemitism by calling for global recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations this month. Macron’s office rejected Netanyahu’s accusation as “abject” and “erroneous,” warning that the letter would “not go unanswered.”