Recognizing a Palestinian State Is a Rebuke to Hamas

Hindustan Times

5 days ago

The decision by France, the U.K., Canada and Australia to recognize a Palestinian state in September is morally right and reflects a global consensus. More than 140 countries agree that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination alongside a secure Israel.
Yet with the Gaza crisis still unfolding, this focus on recognition seems totally beside the more pressing realities. Amid the suffering of Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages—and Israel's announced plan to occupy all or part of the enclave—averting famine, recovering the hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza are the priorities. Talk of two states can wait.
Recognizing a Palestinian state at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way, however, could help enable Israel's departure from Gaza and accelerate the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which many Israelis desire.
Israel long ago achieved two of its three stated objectives in Gaza: destroying Hamas as a military organization and killing the leaders responsible for the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. The third goal—freeing the hostages—is unlikely to be met by fully occupying Gaza. Israel has failed to develop a plan to withdraw from Gaza and prevent Hamas from taking over again. Hamas has continued to recruit significant numbers of new militants. Israeli occupation would perpetuate the misery of innocent Palestinians and be a recipe for an enduring insurgency that bleeds Israel militarily and morally.
This is where a plan to recognize Palestine becomes necessary. Key Arab states have rightly if belatedly condemned Hamas and called on it to disarm and release hostages. These countries are also open to providing security forces and aid to help Palestinians govern, secure and rebuild Gaza while sidelining Hamas. But they'll do so only if there's a credible political path toward Palestinian self-determination. Their people will accept nothing less, and they're convinced that without Palestinian self-determination, Hamas will retain political legitimacy.
Ending the conflict in Gaza and opening a credible pathway to a Palestinian state is also required for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. Polls suggest that a majority of Israelis could unite around such a plan. In turn, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could ditch his poisonous coalition to achieve it.
But unconditionally recognizing Palestine won't produce a Palestinian state or end suffering in Gaza. Failing to require that Palestinians commit to steps to ensure Israel's security in return for recognition would fortify proponents of terror on the Palestinian side and rejectionists of Palestinian statehood on the Israeli side.
There's a better way forward. France, the U.K., Canada and Australia should adopt, and the U.S. should embrace, a time-bound, conditions-based path toward recognizing a Palestinian state. Start and end points are a must, because no one will accept an endless process. Palestinians need a clear and near horizon for political self-determination.
Recognition should also be conditions-based. While Palestinians have a right to self-determination, with that right comes responsibility. No one should expect Israel to accept a Palestinian state that is led by Hamas or other terrorists, that is militarized or has independent armed militias, that aligns with Iran or others that reject Israel's right to exist, that educates and preaches hatred of Jews or Israel, or that, unreformed, becomes a failed state.
For Israelis, past peace efforts have been met with rejection, violent resistance and greater insecurity. The failed 2000 Camp David summit led to the Second Intifada, and Israel's unilateral withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza emboldened Hezbollah and Hamas. Convincing Israelis otherwise after Oct. 7 will be difficult.
Addressing these conditions over the next three years—a reasonable time frame—can show Israel and the world that an independent Palestine will be focused on building a state, not destroying Israel.
The United Nations Security Council is the appropriate organization to judge whether the Palestinians meet the conditions, and America's veto would reassure Israelis. Palestinians and Israelis would negotiate directly on issues such as borders, security arrangements, Jerusalem and the right of return. That process could go on for some time, but it wouldn't stop recognition—which in turn could speed up the resolution of these issues.
In the meantime, Israel must urgently address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and implement a withdrawal plan. It must cease expanding settlements, legalizing outposts and demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It must hold accountable extremist settlers who commit acts of violence and intimidation against Palestinians. It must respect the status quo arrangements for holy sites such as the Temple Mount. Finally, it must support the reform of the Palestinian Authority instead of trying to undermine it, which lets Israel claim it has no negotiating partner.
On its current course, Israel faces the prospect of perpetual conflict in Gaza, dangerous division at home, and diminished standing in the world. Israelis and Palestinians must decide what their relationship will look like moving forward. Israelis can't operate under the illusion that Palestinians will accept being a non-people without national rights. Palestinians, meanwhile, can't hold on to their vision of a Palestine that runs 'from the river to the sea.' Seven million Israeli Jews, two million Israeli Arabs and some five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are rooted in the same region. No one is going anywhere, whatever the delusions of extremists on both sides.
Hamas has hoped for decades to kill the idea of two states. It tried to destroy the 1993 Oslo Accords with suicide bombs. It sought to strangle the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative by launching the horrific Passover attacks. It unleashed the depravity of Oct. 7 in part to derail the Biden administration's efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which required Israel to accept a credible pathway toward a Palestinian state.
Far from rewarding Hamas, as some Israelis contend, embracing a time-bound, conditions-based recognition of Palestine would be the ultimate rebuke to its agenda of death and destruction. And it would finally put Israelis and Palestinians on the path to enduring, peaceful and secure coexistence.
Mr. Blinken served as U.S. secretary of state, 2021-25.