You can always count on the French to be on the wrong side of history. Months after French President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognize a Palestinian state, he added that such recognition was the best way to isolate Hamas, the terrorist organization that began the war in Gaza by killing about 1,200 Israelis and taking over 250 hostages on October 7, 2023.
The president should, at least, condemn their recognition of the Palestinian “state” as a fiction that aids Hamas.
Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Luxembourg have joined France, as has the United Kingdom, in saying they would recognize a Palestinian “state” at the UN meeting next week. The UK already has done so.
Portugal announced the same intention last week. So will Andorra, Malta, and San Marino (not that anyone will notice). All of these countries are joining in what is a major diplomatic challenge — and an insult — to President Trump. But will he do anything about it?
About three quarters of the members of the United Nations already recognize a Palestinian “state” which is, of course, a nation without borders, laws, or anything else that makes a nation.
But let’s get back to France. President Donald Trump has said that Macron’s announced plan will have no effect. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced shortly after that statement that the Palestinian representatives — including Mahmood Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority — will be denied visas to the U.S. That will have the effect of denying Macron his smiling photos with the Palestinian “leaders” when the UN meets for its “High Level General Debate” from 23-29 September.
The problem with this proposed recognition of a Palestinian “state” is what inevitably follows from it.
Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of the Hamas politburo, said on August 3rd that, “The fruits of October 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue — and they are moving toward it with force. That is, that the Palestinian people are a people who deserve a country.”
In short, it’s an encouragement of Hamas’s terrorism.
Hamas has said that it would use the remaining hostages — at least twenty of whom are believed to still be alive — as human shields for its fighters.
This is entirely consistent with Hamas’ past behavior. They have starved and tortured the hostages. The taking of hostages is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, but nobody seems concerned about that.
Macron, as noted above, has already said that such recognition would be the best way to isolate Hamas, which is patently untrue. The fact that France and the other nations are going to recognize a Palestinian “state” is a considerable support of Hamas.
Macron has also said that France will consider economic sanctions against Israel if it doesn’t end its campaign in Gaza, which has entered a new phase driving into Gaza City.
France is supporting Hamas, not out of “humanitarian” concerns, but because France wants Hamas to remain in power in Gaza. That means Hamas can and will again attack Israel and commit more massacres and atrocities. Macron is trying desperately — despite his huge unpopularity in France —– to butter up France’s enormous and growing Muslim population.
As I wrote here on February 23rd of this year, Hamas committed some of the worst atrocities the world has witnessed. The kidnapping of the whole Bibas family — Yarden, the father, Shiri, the mother, and two little boys: four-year-old Ariel and his nine-month-old brother Kfir was one of those despicable acts. The father was released in an early hostage exchange while the mother and both little boys were murdered in captivity. Both of the little boys were strangled and then mutilated to make it appear as if they were killed in an Israeli air strike.
How anyone could bring themselves to killing hostages such as those little boys is unfathomable. Anyone who did this would be declared insane in U.S. criminal courts. And Hamas keeps on killing. Their vow to make the rest of the hostages into human shields is, as I wrote above, consistent with Hamas’s conduct.
President Trump has frequently called for the release of the hostages. He wrote, after the promise to use hostages as human shields, that if that happened, “all bets are off.” But, like his also frequent call for more sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, his threats are empty.
Trump will address the UN General Assembly on September 23. The challenge he faces is the recognition of a Palestinian “state” by France, the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Trump could condemn those nations for recognizing Palestinians as a state. But will he? He should but he probably won’t because he is miffed with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the Israeli strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders.
The major nations that recognize a Palestinian “state” deserve punishment. The president should, at least, condemn their recognition of the Palestinian “state” as a fiction that aids Hamas. If France actually sanctions Israel for its actions in Gaza, it should be sanctioned economically as severely as it sanctions Israel.
Trump can also reduce our funding of UN activities, as he has done before. The UN is not a means of fighting terrorism. To the contrary, it has done absolutely nothing to do so. Its Security Council Resolution 1373, which supposedly requires member states to defund terrorism and not permit terrorists safe-haven in their territories, is comprehensively ignored by too many nations, including Qatar, which has harbored Hamas terrorists for over a decade.
There’s a lot more the president can do. But will he? It isn’t at all likely. As I wrote above, Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian “state” is a major challenge to Trump. The UK, Australia, and Canada are making a bad mistake by joining Macron in doing so.
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