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Recognizing a Palestinian State Is a Great Way to Doom Palestinians

(Forward) Dan Perry - If France and the UK proceed with their proposed unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state in the current climate, they will not be advancing peace. They will, instead, be throwing a political lifeline to Hamas, and triggering a hardened Israeli refusal to contemplate any future territorial concessions - precisely the opposite of what they intend. Recognition now would suggest that the most barbaric terrorism in the region's history - the Oct. 7 massacre, which sparked the current war - has been rewarded. And that would all but guarantee that peace is postponed indefinitely. Hamas is a low-intensity insurgency that thrives on ideology and despair. While the group has been devastated militarily over the course of the war, it can still rebuild - if it's able to once again establish a strong hold on any part of the Palestinian imagination. Recognition of a state now will make sure it does exactly that. The dangerous narrative that the Oct. 7 massacre was a necessary step will be enshrined. And that would be fatal not only to Israel's sense of security, but to any hope of a two-state solution. Israelis have seen what came out of Gaza, and they will never risk a repeat performance from the hilltops of the West Bank. So long as Hamas exists as an armed and popular force, no Israeli government will agree to further land withdrawals, no matter the economic sanctions and global isolation that might ensue. Nearly 150 countries have already recognized a Palestinian state. It has changed nothing, because the preconditions for a real state do not yet exist: There are no defined borders, as well as no unified government and no monopoly on force. The Palestinian Authority, nominally in charge of the West Bank, is weak, corrupt, and marginalized. France and the UK adding their imprimatur to this movement, without decisive plans for the removal of Hamas, will bring it no closer to fruition. Palestinian dignity and rights cannot be advanced by rewarding factions that reject peace and celebrate mass murder. Israelis cannot feel secure while Hamas holds any power in the region. Many of those opposed to Palestinian statehood are not racists or zealots. They are terrified. And until that fear is addressed, they will not budge. Recognition now is surrender to the Palestinians' worst enemy - Hamas. The writer is former chief editor of the Associated Press in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
2025-07-31 00:00:00
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