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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/24/germany-has-shown-starmer-how-to-handle-palestine/
Germany Has Shown How to Handle the Palestine Question
(Telegraph-UK) Henry Donovan - German chancellor Friedrich Merz has done something almost unthinkable for a modern European leader: he has chosen virtue over virtue-signaling. Merz has dared to say what ought to be obvious: Hamas is the obstacle to a real two-state-solution. Until it is stripped of power in Gaza, there can be no peace, no security and no Palestinian state worth the name. That is not cruelty; it is realism. Merz has insisted that Hamas cannot be allowed a role in Gaza's future and that hostage release and disarmament are non-negotiable. This is the minimum moral logic of diplomacy. A peace plan that includes Hamas is not a peace plan at all - it is surrender to fanaticism and rewards the wrong side. Recognition of a Palestinian state under Hamas is no gift to Palestinians; it is a curse. It entrenches their captivity under men who profit from conflict. If Europe truly wants peace, it must pair recognition with coercion: disarmament, governance reform, and guarantees that extremists are driven from power. That is the only humane path for both Israelis and Palestinians.