The decision to recognize a Palestinian State even before the start of direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine is a provocation.
The declaration from Ireland, Norway, and Spain about their plans to acknowledge a Palestinian state underscores a remarkably naive understanding of the essential truth underlying the prolonged conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Indeed, the declaration might actually prolong the ongoing violent conflict in Gaza. It effectively signals to terrorist organizations like Hamas that executing vicious assaults on innocent Israeli civilians will be met with endorsement of their statehood aspirations.
Norway, the nation instrumental in supporting the Oslo Accords in the 1990s aimed at establishing a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, was the pioneer in making its decision known. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stated, “Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved without recognition.”
Are Ireland, Norway, and Spain unaware that accommodating terrorists everywhere merely strengthens the resolve of militants across Europe? Last month saw over 1,000 protesters in Germany marching in the streets, calling for the nation to establish a Caliphate governed by sharia law.
The sentiments expressed by Norway’s Prime Minister were reiterated by Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, who stated that Ireland had definitively declared its support for the equal right to security, dignity, and self-determination for both the Palestinian and Israeli populations.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on the other hand, said that these actions were taken in order to strengthen peace and harmony.
Is he prepared to give the Catalans in Spain, who have been struggling for their independence for years, an autonomous Catalonia?
In Ireland, despite reaching peak levels of violence, there were never demands to conquer Scotland, England, and Wales in order to replace the British.
The joint statements, a result of several months of talks between the nations’ governments, did not address how the acknowledgment of a Palestinian state amid the ongoing Gaza conflict would contribute to resolving the disagreement.
Conversely, the statement is more apt to heighten tensions in the area, mainly because it has succeeded in significantly upsetting the Israeli government. This led to a strong condemnation from Israel and the subsequent withdrawal of its ambassadors from the three countries implicated.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz emphatically conveyed his government’s complete disapproval of the proposal, declaring, “History will note that Spain, Norway, and Ireland chose to honor Hamas killers and sexual assailants with a gold medal.”
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu viewing it as a “reward for terrorism.” He argues that it essentially serves as a commendation for Hamas following their severe assault on Israel on October 7. “Offering a reward for terror won’t lead to peace,” Netanyahu stated, “and it won’t prevent us from defeating Hamas.”
The choice by these three nations to acknowledge a Palestinian state in advance, even before the start of the agreed-upon direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians to settle their conflict, is particularly provocative from the viewpoint of Israel, especially as it coincided with the week when the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague declared intentions to pursue arrest warrants for both Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The readiness of Western authorities and global organizations to engage in this risky virtue-signaling not only reveals their deliberate distortion of Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense following the acts of terror carried out by Hamas on October 7.
The surrender of Ireland, Norway, and Spain also exposes a calculated misunderstanding of the fundamental reasons behind Israel’s prolonged conflict with the Palestinians. This is characterized by the ongoing rejection by various Palestinian leaders across generations to reject terrorism as their main strategy for achieving their political goals, rendering the notion of a sustainable peace between the two groups unattainable.
In the initial stages of the Palestinian bid for statehood, the reliance of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat on terrorist activities to meet his objectives consistently hindered global attempts at establishing peace.
Recently, the Palestinian Authority, now led by Mahmoud Abbas, a longstanding member of the PLO, has effectively been overtaken by Hamas. This Islamist terrorist group undermined the Oslo Accords through a series of lethal terrorist attacks targeting Israelis that began in the 1990s.
The dependence of Hamas on violent acts of terrorism to fulfill its objectives suggests that efforts towards a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians are bound to fail as long as the terrorist group holds a position of influence, a perspective shared by Israelis and most Palestinians.
Since seizing control of Gaza in 2006, Hamas has not only established a terror network within the area but has also forcefully quelled any political dissent against its authoritarian governance in the region.
The significant discontent among most Palestinians towards Hamas’s authoritarian behavior has escalated notably since the onset of the Gaza conflict. This is due to Hamas militants frequently employing the civilian population of Gaza as human shields, showing a blatant disregard for their wellbeing.
Additionally, these brutal strategies have substantially increased the number of deaths in the Gaza conflict. In this conflict, Hamas has frequently used civilians as shields and has fired upon them to stop them from escaping to safety.
In this situation, Israel’s stated goal of eradicating a lethal terrorist group like Hamas is completely valid, particularly to achieve any viable chance of enduring peace in the area.
The idea that a group deliberately killing innocent people still aims to be the paramount leaders of the Palestinians is utterly indefensible. Nations like Norway, Ireland, and Spain should carefully consider this before making their misguided appeals for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The notion that Hamas might eventually lead an independent Palestinian state is a scenario that no civilized nation ought to endorse, underscoring the importance of major global powers like the United States maintaining their stance against acknowledging a Palestinian state.
The stance of the Biden administration towards Israel in the Gaza conflict has frequently been adversarial, yet the decision to dismiss the collective statement from Norway, Ireland, and Spain has been met with approval.
In its formal reply to the nations’ proposal, the White House reiterated its stance that “direct negotiations” are the sole methodology to settle the dispute, a strategy endorsed by Palestinians, along with European nations like the UK and France.
“The optimal approach to establish conditions conducive for negotiations is to permit Israel to complete its military operation aimed at dismantling Hamas’s capability to execute further large-scale attacks akin to October 7 – described as comparable to 50 “9/11s” – which Hamas has vowed to carry out.”
If Israel were permitted to succeed in liberating Palestine from the grasp of Hamas, it would notably enhance the future opportunities for both Israelis and Palestinians.
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“How Harvard was bought.”, New Palestinian Prime Minister: the gap between power and people, ANC — Solving Financial Problems In The Hague, Hamas Must Be Destroyed Before Any Peace Talks Take Place
As a postgraduate in the 1990s at the University of London Royal Holloway, I observed an unprovoked violent assault. A British postgraduate man assaulted and broke the nose of a Jewish postgraduate woman. In this case, the antisemitic British professors gave the British male assailant a gold star for his unprovoked attack: the British male was awarded a “first” honors grade for this course whereas the professors blamed the female victim for her own attack. Very little has seemingly improved in Britain since those antisemitic days. British higher education like American higher education is an even worse cesspool of antisemitism than it was 20 years ago.