OPINION:
The rush last month by several European governments to recognize a “state of Palestine” has been heralded as a bold step toward peace. In reality, it is political theater dressed up as law.
The release of the remaining hostages in Israel this week is a moment for relief and reflection. It underscores what real progress looks like: pressure, negotiation and accountability, not symbolic gestures that reward those who destroy rather than build.
Statehood cannot be declared into existence by applause or sympathy. It requires functioning institutions, secure borders and a government capable of keeping the peace. None of these exists today. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas still rules by terror; in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is paralyzed by corruption and rivalry. Recognition from afar does nothing to unify these factions or build the rule of law. It confers the illusion of sovereignty without any of its substance.
Palestinian statehood has never been about the consistent application of international law. It began as a Cold War political maneuver, repeated until propaganda was mistaken for principle. What began as geopolitical maneuvering hardened into dogma, creating expectations detached from political or institutional reality. Today, it continues as performance, rewarding intransigence rather than compromise, terror rather than institution-building.
History since Oslo proves the point. After the accords, suicide bombings replaced institution-building. At Camp David in 2000, Israel offered nearly all the West Bank and Gaza; Yasser Arafat walked away, and the Second Intifada followed. In 2005, Israel withdrew entirely from Gaza, dismantling every settlement, only for Hamas to turn the territory into a rocket base. Oct. 7, 2023, was the bloodiest continuation of that pattern.
Recognition does not conjure a state into being, but it does shape incentives. By showing that atrocities yield international prizes, the rush to recognize Palestine guarantees not peace but conflict.
Political performance may earn applause, but it ensures that peace remains an illusion and that another generation will pay the price for mistaking theater for diplomacy.
IGOR DESYATNIKOV
Miami Beach, Florida
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