My Word: The Palestinian failed state solution

Congratulations to Norway, Ireland, and Spain on recognizing the failed State of Palestine.

It took no moral courage, but a lack of a moral compass to officially declare recognition for a state that has no defined borders, no democracy, and an economy so bad that last week, the day after the three European countries announced their intention to honor an independent Palestinian state, the World Bank warned that the Palestinian Authority faces “fiscal collapse.”

Neither the international recognition nor the specter of financial disaster will stop the PA from continuing its “Pay-for-slay policy,” supporting the families of murderous terrorists. Similarly, the Islamist Hamas regime in Gaza, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, continues to persuade the world that it needs ever greater quantities of “humanitarian aid,” although it still seems to have plenty of rocket fuel.

Rockets from Rafah were launched on southern and central Israel this week, while Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel from Lebanon, and Iranian-funded drones, apparently from Iraq, targeted Eilat from the east. The rockets didn’t carry a message of peace. They were war crimes.

The joint announcement by Norway, Ireland, and Spain – with other stunningly naive European states expected to follow – raised several questions, both ethical and practical. To be fair, the European countries weren’t the first to recognize the State of Palestine – its status was recently upgraded in the UN, where more than 140 of the 193-member states have already recognized it, including Sweden.

IF THE VAST majority of UN members acknowledge the existence of a Palestinian state, the obvious question should be: Why do the Palestinians need to maintain their UN-granted “Perpetual refugee” status and the massive funding for UNRWA – the UN body dealing uniquely with “Palestinian refugees”? In a world where commonsense ruled, it should be obvious that the Palestinians cannot be considered refugees if they have their own state – particularly those living in that state.

Recognizing a country without defining its borders

This gives rise to another troubling issue – well, troubling to those Jews living “Between the river and the sea.” Recognizing a country without defining its borders is risky at best. And this isn’t best. There’s a certain irony to calling the same area the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and the State of Palestine.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that the “State of Palestine” is situated roughly in what the world calls “the West Bank.” This is the area known to Jews for millennia as Judea and Samaria. Norway, Ireland, and Spain (backed by the UN and EU, among others) constantly complain that Jews living in this part of their ancestral homeland present an obstacle to peace. 

In addition to being a politically, and economically failed state, the Palestinian entity is inherently antisemitic. How far will the Europeans go to create a Palestinian apartheid state? Will European “peacekeepers” enforce the eviction of half a million Jews – and only Jews – from their homes? Or is Israel expected to do that, despite the catastrophic consequences of removing all the Jewish communities from Gaza in 2005?

Who is the leader of this Palestinian state? Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah – too scared to hold elections for the last 19 years? Yahiya Sinwar, wherever he’s hiding with his terrorist army and human shields in Gaza? Or perhaps the equally corrupt and bloodthirsty Ismail Haniyeh, sheltering in Qatar?

And what will be the fate of Jerusalem? Israel is the only country where the capital city – home to its parliament, President’s Residence, and Supreme Court – is not universally recognized. Would the Irish government like to reestablish a wall there? Will Jerusalemites, pilgrims, and visitors in the future be expected to produce passports to travel from one light rail station to the next?

Spain has already indicated that it considers east Jerusalem – home to Judaism’s holiest sites – the capital of Palestine. “Palestine,” according to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, includes both the West Bank and Gaza, connected via sovereign Israel. Spain, more than 20 times the size of Israel, wants a State of Palestine straddling the Jewish state, while rejecting calls for Catalonian independence.

FOREIGN MINISTER Israel Katz is no diplomat. But forcing the Norwegian, Spanish, and Irish ambassadors to watch the harrowing clip of five female soldiers being tied up and kidnapped by Hamas from their base on October 7 showed what Israel is dealing with – what the countries recognizing Palestine are partner to, either willingly or through stunning ignorance and naivety.

The terrified faces of the young women are battered, and they are wearing bloodstained pajamas. Anyone with a heart felt it go out to 19-year-old Na’ama Levy, a graduate of peace programs, telling the terrorists manhandling her: “I have friends in Palestine.” 

Ditto, watching 18-year-old Liri Albag, struggling to find someone to reason with, as the bodies of her friends lay nearby. “Do you speak English?” she asked one of the monsters. These innocent young women were staring at the face of evil and desperately trying to find logic and humanity among those using ISIS terminology for female captives.

Thousands of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and “ordinary” Gazan civilians invaded southern Israel on October 7, raping, mutilating, murdering, pillaging, burning, and abducting. It was a nightmare from which Israel cannot wake up.

According to Bassam Tawil, a Muslim Arab researcher writing for the Gatestone Institute, among the murderous hordes were members of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, under the authority of Palestinian Authority head Abbas. That’s Palestinian President Abbas, if you prefer.

The leaders of the countries recognizing the Palestinian state deny that they are rewarding this barbaric act of terrorism, deluding themselves that this is a move toward peace. I would laugh if I weren’t crying.As Tawil noted, “The time of the recognition of a Palestinian state, just months after Hamas’s October 7 attack of Israel, sent a message to the terrorists – which should be transposed to the Europeans in their own countries – that the more people they slaughter, including the Gazans Hamas kills as human shields, the more support they will have from the Europeans and the rest of the international community.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said: “In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: two states, living side by side, in peace and security.”

This is the thinking – or lack of thinking – that gave us the Oslo Accords three decades ago. That peace initiative literally blew up in a wave of Hamas bombings. Oslo gave us more than 1,200 Israeli “victims of peace.” We mourn them along with the 1,200 murdered on October 7.

The prime minister of Spain voiced similar sentiments to his Norwegian counterpart. “This is a historic decision that has a single objective: that Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” premier Sanchez said on Tuesday, ahead of implementation of the declaration of recognition. The Irish leader joined in the chorus.

But Hamas was not seeking peace and prosperity on October 7. If you want to get along with your neighbors, you don’t invade and slaughter them.

Incidentally, while the announcement by the three European states was greeted with celebrations in Gaza, there was less joy in the PA-controlled West Bank. Despite the European protestations, Abbas knows that this will be perceived as a reward to Hamas for its terrorism. A Hamas victory threatens Abbas’s survival even more than it threatens Israel.

Abbas is also keenly aware that the latest recognition of his undefined state will not significantly change anything on the ground, and this could lead to greater frustration. Any real improvement will be credited to Hamas, not the corrupt Abbas and his cronies. Either way, it empowers Hamas.

If there is one positive thing stemming from recognition of the Palestinian state – the light at the end of the terror tunnel, as it were – it’s that states, unlike terrorist organizations, are bound by international law.

The UN, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and other international bodies should now enforce those laws – starting with ensuring that the International Red Cross Committee visits all the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, to be followed by their release. This, of course, stands a far better chance of ending the war than rewarding the Palestinians for starting it. But don’t hold your breath.

Those unilaterally recognizing a State of Palestine are rewarding terrorism and living in a state of denial.