As world leaders pack their bags to attend the UN General Assembly, several Western nations will mark this annual gathering with an act of treachery of global proportions.  France, the UK, Canada, and Australia will lead the pack of those who will make a mockery of international diplomacy, doing something sad and even illegal in recognizing the “State of Palestine.” The mockery would be funny if it weren’t so obscene, propagating a fake reality as if such an entity ever existed, or had the standing and legitimacy to exist as a state. 

These are broad issues that are clear-cut.  The countries recognizing Palestine will not only NOT make peace more likely, but will push it further away by rewarding the terror that emanates from Palestinian Arab society, with a near-exclusive goal to eliminate Israel, not live side by side in peace.  That the second anniversary of the inhuman Hamas massacre is approaching makes this reality all the more vivid.  They and their global useful idiots do not chant for two states but for the elimination of the Jewish state. 

This treachery is particularly egregious because the closest the Palestinian Arabs ever came to a state was in the Oslo Accords, which they celebrated and now which they are abrogating.  The Oslo Accords established a bilateral framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through negotiated final status talks on issues like borders, Jerusalem, Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, refugees, and security. It expressly states, “neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.” Through this, both parties committed to good-faith negotiations without unilateral actions that change the respective territories’ status. 

Three decades later, the countries that have unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state, and those plotting to do so, as well as threats of further actions by other Western governments under the guise of peace and diplomacy, violate this framework in two key ways. It also rewards the terror and intransigence that’s the only strategy the Palestinian Authority, PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their enablers have undertaken all these years. 

Recognizing “Palestine” implies a state with fixed borders and globally accepted criteria for statehood, which do not exist and are supposed to be negotiated, not declared. This directly alters these territories’ status without Israeli agreement or Palestinian Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist. This contravenes Oslo’s core principle that final status issues must be resolved bilaterally, not imposed externally, as it removes incentives, indeed requirements, for compromise and rewards terror and incitement. 

 The Oslo Accords were signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the “sole legitimate” Palestinian representative at the time, with expectations that the international community would support the process rather than bypass it. Unilateral moves like this by Western countries especially breach not only Oslo, but also broader UN principles favoring negotiated settlements over unilateral declarations, potentially rendering prior diplomatic efforts (including U.S.-brokered accords) meaningless. This encourages continued Palestinian Arab rejectionism, incitement, terror, and funding and harboring of terrorists. 

While the accords bind the signatories directly, third-party recognitions are illegal in the sense that they flout the agreed international framework, eroding trust and escalating tensions—Israel has warned of potential “unilateral actions” in response. Personally, I don’t believe that because our Palestinian Arab 
“peace partners” violate the agreement that Israel should as well.  

Underscoring that the PA never recognized Israel’s legitimacy, the 2006 Quartet principles (established by the U.S., EU, UN, and Russia after Hamas’s electoral victory), require the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence and terrorism, and accept prior agreements like the Oslo Accords. As a designated terrorist organization by the U.S., EU, and others, Hamas has continually rejected these. 

While the focus is on Gaza and eliminating Hamas there, there’s another pivotal flaw in recognizing “Palestine.”  The presumed borders of the fake state also include Judea and Samaria, “the West Bank,” where Hamas is no less entrenched.  Do the great leaders of France, the UK, Canada, and Australia, or anyone else for that matter, have an answer for how their “Palestine” will prevent Hamas taking control there?

As they prepare to recognize “Palestine,” some Western red lines have also been drawn, specifically that Hamas cannot participate in a future Palestinian government. These are nonsensical. First of all, if they aspire to any semblance of democracy or liberalism in “Palestine,” they cannot recognize a state and then dictate who can and cannot be part of its government. 

Doing so they also uphold the failed Palestinian Authority (PA) which is an inept, weak kleptocracy that most Palestinian Arabs loathe. Upon recognizing their faux state, the PA as its “government” is one intifada away from falling to Hamas. What will these Western leaders” do when the PA falls and “Palestine” becomes Hamas-stan, a jihadi terrorist entity with the trappings of statehood that overtly threatens Israel?  Will they renounce their recognition of “Palestine?”  Will it matter? 

Of course, Palestinian Arabs don’t see it, but they should be offended that recognizing “Palestine” is conditional.  If it were really legitimate, or the existence of a Palestinian state made a difference to bring peace, they would have done it without all the threats and conditions. But the Western leaders simply parade their ignorant and very problematic treachery.

Additionally, Oslo established the PA and positioned the PLO as the exclusive Palestinian negotiating partner. Integrating Hamas or a Hamas take-over, without Quartet compliance would delegitimize the PA internationally, as it signals non-acceptance of Israel’s existence or the peace process—core Oslo prerequisites. 

Western governments tie recognition of Palestinian statehood and billions in aid to a “single, legitimate, and democratic” authority excluding unrepentant Hamas elements. Post-October 7, 2023, this has intensified, with the Quartet reiterating reunification under PLO principles as a precondition for progress toward statehood. Without it, any recognized “state” risks being diplomatically isolated or internally divided, undermining viability. 

While very flawed and more irrelevant than ever since the October 7, 2023, massacre, Oslo still remains the governing principle.  The unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state does not change its flaws, but just makes a mockery of any negotiated peace process. It rewards terror. It makes peace more untenable. It does not condition “Palestine” on any responsibilities of disarming or releasing all the remaining hostages kidnapped two years ago. It is illegal and should not happen or be accepted.