British recognition for Palestine is to play a valuable card and get nothing for it
Chief among them would be that Palestinian recognition would be a reward for hostage-taking, for rape, for murder, for burning innocent people alive. Recognising a Palestinian state in a post-October 7 reality would be nothing less than a reward for terrorism. Few would argue that this impetus for unilateral Palestinian recognition has stemmed from the atrocious acts that Hamas committed on October 7 – the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust. Remember, this push for recognition was not on the table on October 6. Be in no doubt, Islamist extremists are watching closely, terrorists are watching intently and the signal that they are receiving is that their violent tactics yield positive results for them in the UK and the West. They say it themselves: Hamas has welcomed multiple statements coming from London. I am sure similar praise from Hamas would come again were the UK to recognise a Palestinian state, in the same way that the terror group gleefully congratulated Macron. Recognition would be utter folly – terrorism should be eliminated, not encouraged.
You may ask, what concessions are those who call for recognition asking for from the Palestinians in return? Nothing. Our 50 hostages, still languishing in the torturous terror dungeons of Gaza will not be released. Hamas will continue to be the governing authority in Gaza. It really would be a masterclass in futile diplomacy.
The tragic reality is that Israel does not have, and never has had, a genuine Palestinian partner for peace. Indeed, the history of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process reads as a timeline of missed opportunities for a Palestinian statehood due to the phenomenon of Palestinian rejectionism and the refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state within any borders. And yet, we are repeatedly told that Yasser Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, is a credible partner in that respect. How ridiculous. It was less than a year ago that Abbas praised the October 7 massacre. Furthermore, if Abbas is so pro-democracy, why is he half-way through the 21st year of his four-year term? Mahmoud Abbas has a history of Holocaust denial, having blamed the Jews for the Holocaust on multiple occasions, including in September 2023 when he said: 'Hitler Fought the European Jews Because of Their Usury, Money Dealings, It Was Not about Anti-semitism.' Most worrying of all, Abbas currently has a policy in place in which the 'moderate' Palestinian Authority literally pays salaries to the families of terrorists who murder Israelis. The more Jews murdered, the more money they receive. The PA's 'Pay for Slay' policy tragically ensures that Palestinian terrorism remains a profitable industry. For Western governments to recognise a Palestinian state, would be a de facto acceptance of Pay for Slay, which crucially would take us further away from peace and encourage more murders of Israelis and Jewish people.
I have been asking myself what impact would result from such a decision, other than the aforementioned encouragement for terror? There would be no positive impact as far as the Middle East is concerned, with recognition only serving as an act of grandstanding and virtue-signalling. Positive progress can only come through bilateral discussions. Unhelpful, unilateral steps seeking to bypass Israel will achieve absolutely nothing as the reality on the ground would remain the same. And that reality is that there can be no progress or positive impact in the Israeli-Palestinian context as long as our hostages remain in captivity and Hamas remains in power. In recognising a Palestinian state, the UK would be playing a major card which could gain concessions from the Palestinians towards peace for absolutely nothing. It would also signal a significant departure from the policy of the US administration. As US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, remarked following Macron's announcement of recognition: 'This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7.'
Ultimately, we have to move beyond empty words and virtue-signalling and look into the practical implications of what people are saying. When people call for recognising a Palestinian state, who would they be recognising as the Palestinian leadership? Who would they wish to govern? Presumably not the elected, genocidal terrorist group, Hamas? So, would it then be Mahmoud Abbas and his terror-supporting Palestinian Authority?
Amid such global instability, the last thing the world would need is another failed state like that of Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, or Libya. We have too many of them in our region. Corruption, jihadi extremists, power vacuums, radicalism, Iranian interference, a plethora of armed terrorist groups – a Palestinian state would have all the ingredients of a would-be failed state. Why would a Palestinian state be any different to the others? What would an education system overseen by a Holocaust denier look like? In the post-October 7 reality that Israelis are living in, what security guarantees are being given to us for our legitimate concerns? I have yet to hear a viable answer to any of those questions.
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