[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
While Rashida Tlaib (D-Gaza City), Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon), and Bernie Sanders (D-Ben & Jerry’s) are delighted with all the countries abandoning Israel and embracing a nonexistent “state of Palestine,” at the UN, sensible people in Washington are expressing their horror and disgust. More on their reactions can be found here: “‘Performative’: US Officials, Lawmakers Slam Western Allies for Recognizing Palestinian State,” by Corey Walker, Algemeiner, September 22, 2025:
Trump administration officials and lawmakers in the US Congress are largely lambasting the decision by allies the UK, Canada, Portugal, and Australia to recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday, saying that the declarations reward terrorism and serve as a setback for peace negotiations in the Middle East.
The ecstatic response from Hamas to the news of all of these countries abandoning Israel and “recognizing a state of Palestine” is proof enough that the terrorists realize they have been rewarded.
“Our focus remains on serious diplomacy, not performative gestures,” a US State Department spokesperson told AFP. “Our priorities are clear: the release of the hostages, the security of Israel, and peace and prosperity for the entire region that is only possible free from Hamas.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has similarly repudiated the decision as “reckless,” arguing it will only make peace a more distant prospect.
“We warned them that we thought that was counterproductive. We actually think it’s undermined negotiations, because it emboldened Hamas, and we think it undermines future prospects of peace in the region,” Rubio told reporters while traveling to Israel last week. “Right now, we’re focused on how we can end what’s happening in Gaza. How can we end Hamas, how can we get the hostages freed, and how can we create a framework so that the people of Gaza can have a much better life than they ever had under Hamas? That’s what the president wants and that’s what we’re going to continue to work on.”
US President Donald Trump “disagrees” with the countries that officially recognized a Palestinian state and “believes it is a reward to Hamas,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She said on Monday that Trump views the move as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies” and “feels this does not do anything to release the hostages” in Gaza and “does nothing to end this conflict and bring this war to a close.”…
Just before his meeting with Muslim leader on the sidelines of the General Assembly, and sitting next to French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump told reporters that “I’m on the side of Israel. I’ve been on the side of Israel, really, my whole life, and we’re going to get a solution, and it’s going to be a solution that’s good for everybody.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leaders reacted joyously to the news.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, called the declarations “a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause.”
It’s a “victory,” all right, not just for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, but for Islamic terrorists everywhere. These jihadists cannot be bought off with a promised “state of Palestine,” that will only whet, not sate, their appetites. The jihadists worldwide will still keep in their sights the very countries, including France and the U.K. — that have just done their best to sacrifice Israel’s security in the hope that the jihadist crocodile will eat them last.