OPINION:
Israel has embarked on its offensive to take Gaza City, the last redoubt of Hamas. The terrorist group is broken and battered, but an odd alliance is fighting tooth and nail to save it.
The press, anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations and a coterie of foreign leaders are working overtime to prevent Hamas from being destroyed. They feign concern for the Palestinian people, but they are enabling the very authors of the Gaza Strip’s destruction: Hamas.
Britain, France, Australia, Canada and Portugal recently declared that they now recognize a “Palestinian state.” Initially, several of these countries claimed they would do so only if Hamas laid down its arms, released its hostages and gave up a role in a Palestinian government. Hamas didn’t meet a single one of these conditions, but, tellingly, these countries still offered their “recognition.”
The State Department called the unilateral recognition a “performative gesture.” In a Sept. 19 letter, Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, and 23 of their colleagues warned that “granting statehood” right now “only reinforces the effectiveness of Hamas’ violence and rogue behavior.” They added that “until the Palestinians are willing to take responsibility for their own people, renounce terrorism, and come to the negotiating table in good faith, there can be no steppingstone toward statehood.” The signatories warned that the recognition “offers greater rewards” for a terrorist group that seeks the genocide of Jews and is willing to sacrifice its own people in pursuit of that goal.
Hamas certainly seems pleased with the move. The terrorist group hailed the decision as an “important step.” Hamas apparatchik Ghazi Hamad directly linked the recognition of a “Palestinian state” to the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, the largest slaughter of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. He called it “the fruits of October 7.”
In short: The leaders of these nations chose to reward a genocidal terrorist group guilty of mass murder. Their decision was immoral and strategically unwise, preemptively sacrificing leverage while Hamas still holds hostages. By any fair account, their decision makes further bloodshed more, not less, likely. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has noted that the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state “does not do anything to release the hostages, which is the primary goal right now in Gaza, does nothing to end this conflict and bring this war to a close.”
Moreover, the decision seems unpopular. Separate polls by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France and J.L. Partners show that as many as 71% of the French and 87% of the British public oppose the recognition of a Palestinian state without conditions. Many feel it serves only to legitimize Hamas’ actions. A Telegraph poll found that 89% of Labor voters in Britain oppose the move.
The unilateral nature of the recognition has also prompted outcry. Leo Housakos, Canadian Senate opposition leader, called it “deplorable,” saying: “If this is to be Canada’s official position, it should have been debated in Parliament.”
Hamas remains unbowed. The terrorist group responded by releasing a new hostage video featuring Alon Ohel, who has now endured nearly two years of captivity and torture. Hamas members also filmed themselves executing Palestinians in front of a hospital. Additional evidence has emerged of the terrorist organization hijacking aid trucks that are being sent into Gaza. As The Spectator’s Jonathan Sacerdoti rightly observed: “If that is the foundation upon which Europe intends to recognize statehood, then it is not recognizing a future of peace and sovereignty, but entrenching a system of impunity, cruelty, and permanent conflict.”
Indeed, it is little more than “empty virtue signaling,” as noted by Rep. Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The so-called state has no borders, no currency, no economy, no capital and no leaders. Democracy, rule of law and basic human rights are also nonexistent. A June poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that an astonishing 73% of Palestinians in the West Bank and 57% of Palestinians in Gaza consider the Oct. 7 massacre to be “correct and justified.” This is an inauspicious beginning. The Middle East isn’t exactly lacking in the “failed states” category.
The decision to recognize a “Palestinian state” also opens up a whole host of unintentional issues. It’s entirely possible that a “state of Palestine” can be held to account for numerous crimes, including support for genocide, terrorism and a litany of other charges. Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted that if Britain, France and others believe a Palestinian state now exists, their support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an organization for Palestinian “refugees,” must now cease. Moreover, the “Palestinian state” must be added to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
It seems undeniable that the decision to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state wasn’t really about helping create a Palestinian state. Rather, it was transparently an attempt to punish the existing Jewish state, and it is but the latest in a campaign that, unwittingly and otherwise, aids Hamas.
For months, mainstream news outlets and the United Nations, among others, have flogged claims of a “genocide” and a “famine” in Gaza. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis has highlighted, this propaganda campaign has relied on casualty claims supplied by Hamas and biased anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations whose sole purpose is to defame and delegitimize the Jewish state.
Israel has Hamas on the ropes, but some in the so-called international community seem dead set on saving the terrorist group.
• The writer is a senior research analyst for the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
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