In the wake of the most barbaric massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to reward its progenitors, announcing that France will recognize Palestine as a state. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he will do the same if Israel hasn’t agreed to a ceasefire by September.
″Given its historic commitment to a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the state of Palestine,’’ Macron posted. ″Peace is possible.’’
Peace is possible, but not if it comes as a reward for terrorism.
Before the usual cries of “Islamophobia” drown out rational thought, we should acknowledge that Palestinian self-determination is just as important as the self-determination of all peoples. Personally, I want there to be a Palestinian state, with the Palestinian people enjoying freedom, prosperity, and peace. But suppose this Palestinian state is to exist in the West Bank. How does Macron expect to achieve peace when an overwhelming majority of its Palestinian residents support Hamas and their Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom? On that day, Hamas tortured, kidnapped, mutilated, raped, burned, and murdered over 1,000 innocent civilians.
What we are witnessing from Macron is nothing new. Instead, it’s the same old reliable naivety in which the West rewards Islamic Jihadists for Islamic Jihadism, cementing in place the Palestinian political movement’s mantra: commit terrorism, get rewarded.
When it comes to the Palestinian “cause,” we face the upside-down logic of modern diplomacy. Hamas slaughters babies, livestreams mass rape, burns entire families alive, and then hides behind its civilian population. In response, Israel goes to war to defend itself. And how does the West respond? France demands that the Palestinians be handed a state. There’s one word for that: insanity. Insanity that repeats a pattern that has haunted the world for over 75 years, in which Palestinian leaders rejected a state time after time after time, preferring to embrace terrorism.
In 1947, the United Nations offered a two-state solution: a Jewish state and an Arab state side-by-side. The Jews accepted, while the Arabs—including the Palestinian leadership—declared war. That war didn’t end with the Palestinians winning a state. It ended with five Arab armies invading the newborn State of Israel and losing. And after they lost, even the so-called “Palestinian territories” didn’t become a Palestinian state—they were occupied by Egypt (Gaza) and Jordan (the West Bank) until 1967, with no world protests and no chants of “Free Palestine” in the streets of Paris.
Why? Because, like today, this has nothing to do with a Palestinian state and everything to do with the destruction of Israel.
What about in 2000, when President Bill Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Camp David? Israel offered 92% of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and a capital in East Jerusalem, with land swaps making up the difference: the ultimate opportunity for a Palestinian state. What did Arafat do? He walked away and chose war, launching the Second Intifada: a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, shootings, and terrorist attacks that killed over 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians. Buses were blown apart, nails and ball bearings shredded teenagers at nightclubs, and children were murdered in front of their parents.
Yet again, the world looked away. Why? Because, like today, this has nothing to do with a Palestinian state and everything to do with the destruction of Israel.
Even in 2005, when Israel under Ariel Sharon unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, with every Israeli soldier and civilian gone overnight, leaving Gaza under complete Palestinian autonomy. What did Israel get in return? Not peace. Not gratitude. Not the beginnings of a state. Instead, they got Hamas, who immediately turned Gaza into a launching pad for terrorism and Iranian-backed rocket fire. In 2006, the Palestinian people even elected Hamas to power.
In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Mahmoud Abbas more than Barak did: 94% of the West Bank, land swaps, a capital in East Jerusalem, and shared control of holy sites. Abbas rejected him. In 2014, the moronic U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry led another round of pointless negotiations, with the Palestinian Authority walking away to incite more stabbings, more rockets, more terrorism. The lesson is clear: time after time, the Palestinian leadership has rejected the opportunity for statehood and has embraced the continued brutalization of the Jewish people, and yet the international chorus continues to unquestioningly sing the same suicidal tune: give the Palestinians a state.
Why? Because, like today, this has nothing to do with a Palestinian state and everything to do with the destruction of Israel.
But we should pause and ponder an important question here. Namely, what message is Macron actually sending? Because what he is essentially saying is that if you want your own country, don’t bother negotiating. Don’t build schools or infrastructure. Don’t work with your neighbors or reform your institutions. Instead, just kill enough civilians, and eventually, the West will offer you recognition.
Macron is thus nothing but the perfect symbol of the modern European elite: performative, soft-handed, and allergic to moral clarity. His response to Hamas’s war crimes is not outrage at the terrorists, but handwringing appeasement of terrorism. When the world rewards terrorism with statehood, what it guarantees is not peace but repeat customers. Every aspiring jihadist watches how the world cowers. Every child raised on martyrdom sees what “resistance” yields: legitimacy.
We must break the cycle.
ISRAEL HAS ONLY BAD OPTIONS IN GAZA
Palestinians should one day have a state, but only when they demonstrate that they wish to live peacefully. Until that happens, every Western leader pushing for premature statehood is not advancing peace; they’re sabotaging it.
If terrorism is a path to statehood, don’t act surprised when more people choose that path.
Ian Haworth is a syndicated columnist. Follow him on X (@ighaworth) or Substack.