Those recognizing a Palestinian state 'can't even tell you where it is,' Rubio says

Yahoo

4 days ago

'At the end of the day, Hamas is sitting there saying: We're winning the PR war. We've got all these countries lining up on our side of this argument."
The 140 heads of state threatening to recognize or ones that have already recognized a Palestinian state 'can't even tell you where this Palestinian state is,' US State Secretary Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade on Thursday.
'They can't tell you who will govern it. And I think number three, it's counterproductive,' Rubio continued.
Rubio called the decisions irrelevant, saying that 'it doesn't mean anything.'
'First of all, none of these countries has the ability to create a Palestinian state. There can be no Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to it.'
Rubio likened supporting Palestinian statehood to being on the same side as Hamas, adding that it would be a reward for the terror group. 'At the end of the day, the Hamas side is the Palestinian statehood side.'
Rubio said that Hamas is emboldened to hurt the ceasefire, hostage talks with these declarations. 'If Hamas refuses to agree to a ceasefire, it guarantees a Palestinian state will be recognized by all these countries in September,' he said, adding that the declarations are clumsy.
'At the end of the day, Hamas is sitting there saying: We're winning the PR war. We've got all these countries lining up on our side of this argument. We've got leverage now. We shouldn't agree to anything. We should keep this thing going.
'That's how – they don't care about how many people die in Gaza, and they – they've got hostages that they think is their shield, and now they've got all these countries sort of lining up on their side,' Rubio continued.
He added that he wished there was more international attention paid to the Israeli hostages still in Hamas captivity.
Arab League calling on Hamas to demilitarize, agree to two-state solution
Kilmeade pressed Rubio on the fact that the Arab League demanded Hamas lay down its arms and agree to a two-state solution, asking whether these countries, particularly Qatar, have sway.
Rubio responded that Qatar has been helpful and forceful during negotiations and has expressed their frustration with Hamas. 'I think the moment of truth has to arrive, however, where there have to be consequences if Hamas continues to disagree,' Rubio added.
He said that the anti-Israel narrative building around the world is emboldening Hamas.
'We have seen this – see the unity of these pro-Islamist, anti-Western, anti-capitalism left sort of merger,' he said, referring to protests against ICE and immigration enforcement. 'In many of these things, it's the same people.
They're wearing the same – waving the same flags, wearing the same headscarf, and it's the same people that shut down our universities. That's what we've experienced domestically, and this has become a factor in many these countries as well. They're under tremendous domestic pressure,' he said, explaining why countries would make this declaration.
'You watch the programming of things like the BBC – 95 percent of their coverage is about how evil, in their narrative, Israel is. Very little coverage paid to the hostages, the families,' he continued, 'You know what the cameras don't capture? The suffering of 20 people living in tunnels right now, taken hostage by Hamas for almost, for a long time. No one's covering that. No one's talking about that.'
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