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OPINION:
European nations are preparing to push for recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City later this month. The impulse is understandable: The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has been horrific, and the status quo is intolerable. Recognition feels like a morally satisfying action.
What would recognition actually achieve? Would it create a lasting peace in the Middle East? Would it end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? The answers to these questions reveal that the “two-state solution” has become a slogan in search of a reality. That’s because European governments cannot simply conjure into existence a Palestinian leadership that is willing, able, let alone elected, to peacefully govern such a state.
Such leadership will never come into being until Palestinian political culture buys into an even more unshakable reality: Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and it is not going anywhere. Until that truth is reflected in Palestinian politics, policies and security practices, Palestinian recognition will achieve nothing other than creating a state that poses a security threat to Israel and sending a message to terrorists around the world that terrorism works.
The history of Gaza since 2005 proves the point. That year, Israel unilaterally withdrew every Israeli from the strip. Peace has not followed. Instead, Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary vote, seized Gaza the following year and has ruled ever since with brutality and fanaticism. Rather than serving as a pilot project for Palestinian self-rule, withdrawal and elections produced a rocket statelet and a cycle of wars.
The argument that statehood would strengthen “moderates,” inspire hope and undercut Hamas is not borne out in the West Bank either. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, is in the 19th year of a four-year term. He has canceled election after election for fear Hamas would win (and polling suggests it likely would). Even if Mr. Abbas’ Fatah prevailed, the Palestinian Authority’s practices offer little reassurance. By naming public squares after terrorists, teaching schoolchildren to imagine a world without Israel, and paying stipends to attackers and their families, the Palestinian Authority has crafted a political culture based on antisemitism.
Within this context, what (and who) would recognition empower? An unelected authority despised by its people? Or an Islamist movement that vows Israel’s destruction? Terrorists the world over would be empowered by recognition. Hamas has long claimed that “resistance,” not negotiation, forces the world’s hand. Recognizing Palestinian statehood in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, would validate that message.
Sovereignty is a right and a responsibility. It carries preconditions: security for citizens, accountability under the law, the rejection of terrorism and a willingness to live alongside neighbors in peace.
Make no mistake, the moral case for Palestinian self-determination is real, as is the moral case for Israeli self-preservation. Israel is behaving rationally by insisting that it will not jeopardize its security to guarantee the statehood of another. Any road map to Palestinian statehood must, therefore, be worthy of both Israeli and Palestinian security. This begins with a basic diplomatic ethic: Align symbols with substance.
This means conditioning every diplomatic upgrade on offer to the Palestinians according to measurable reforms, such as abolishing terrorist stipends, purging the incitement of antisemitic violence from textbooks, guaranteeing fair elections, and proclaiming clearly to Palestinian audiences that peace means two nation-states for two peoples, one of them Jewish.
It also means Palestinians must reconcile with the hard truth that a “right of return” is incompatible with a two-state solution. Leaders who promise maximalist dreams are not preparing their people for peace — only for endless conflict.
Finally, recognition should be conditioned on Palestinians building the institutions and embracing the ideas that make coexistence possible. Ultimately, symbols are a starting point, not an end.
Until these conditions can be met, bestowing statehood is not an act of courage. It is the continuation of misery in Gaza, the repetition of past mistakes and the proof of a too-often-forgotten maxim in diplomacy: Don’t confer what you can’t enforce.
• Aviva Klompas is the former director of speechwriting at the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations and co-founder of Boundless Israel, a nonprofit organization that partners with community leaders in the U.S. to support Israel education and combat hatred of Jews. She is a co-host of the “Boundless Insights” podcast.
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