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Hamas has been mightily pleased with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, all of whom have now promised to recognize at the opening session of the UN General Assembly in September a “Palestinian state.” The boundaries of that state, and the government that will rule over it, have not been mentioned, so it is unclear just what that state will look like, and what will happen to the 700,000 Israelis who now live in Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem, the very territories that, many people apparently believe, Israel will voluntarily surrender in order to bring about that highly-improbable though much ballyhooed “two-state solution” consisting of a much-reduced Israel existing side-by-side with a newly created “state of Palestine.” Macron has placed no conditions on the Palestinians; Keir Starmer and Mark Carney have called on Hamas to first free the hostages, and in Carney’s case, he also wants Mahmoud Abbas to “reform” the Palestinian Authority’s government, as Abbas now promises to do, even though he never made such a move during his close to two decades in power. This string of promises about recognizing a Palestinian state has not only heartened the terrorist murderers of Hamas, but has led them to a new demand.
The announcements by Macron, Starmer, and Carney, and those previously made in 2024 by the governments of Spain, Ireland, and Norway, to recognize a Palestinian state, have all heartened Hamas, and strengthened its resolve not to surrender. Hamas, despite its terrific losses in men and materiel, has been given a new boost to its morale. After all, France, the U.K., and Canada are far more important that Spain, Ireland, and Norway; they are three of the seven members of the G-7.
The effect has been immediate, and electrifying. Now Hamas says it will not be willing to lay down its arms — that is, agree to a ceasefire which would enable the remaining hostages to be free — until after the creation of a Palestinian state. Had Macron, Starmer, and Carney not spoken of their imminent recognition of such a state, it would not have occurred to Hamas to have made such an impossible demand. Well done, gentlemen. You’ve shown yourselves to be geopolitical geniuses in reverse.
Macron, Starmer and Carney have made their pusillanimous choice. They are alarmed by the ever larger Muslim populations in France, the UK, and Canada, but none of them dares to discuss the need to put a stop to further Muslim immigration and to deport as many Muslims as possible, beginning with those who have committed crimes, back to their countries of origin. Demography is destiny, and for these three countries to remain what they have been for centuries, severe measures will have to be taken. These three leaders hope that by never mentioning the Muslim threat, by pretending that Muslims are indeed integrating successfully into their societies, that somehow the problem will go away. It won’t. Instead, they are seeking ways to placate Muslims, in the hope that they will not be too violent, and the best way they know how to do this is to abandon the Jewish state, and to embrace the factitious “state of Palestine” that has no borders and no government. Each of them will soon discover to his chagrin that, as President Trump said of Macron, his opinion “doesn’t matter.” The Israelis will reject their attempts to insert themselves into the Arab-Israeli conflict, on the side of the Arabs. Those Israelis are fighting for their lives, and they don’t have time to listen to these unsympathetic and mildly antisemitic critics.
Macron, Starmer and Carney can announce their intention to recognize a state of Palestine. They can get a few other states to follow their example. But so what? They cannot force Israel to commit suicide by pulling out of Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem. The Israelis, 80% of whom now oppose the chimera of that falsely-named “two state solution,” are not going to engage in any further surrender of territory, not to Hamas, and not to the Palestinian Authority. Even those who disagree with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on domestic matters such as judicial reform agree with his lapidary formula about what the “Palestinian” Arabs should reasonably expect. “I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us.” Macron, Starmer and Carney have no say in the matter.
