Do the British and French governments want the remaining hostages to die? Or do they simply not care about their lives?
Those are the only possible scenarios after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will recognize Hamastan as a legitimate state at the UN General Assembly in September and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer threatened to do the same if Hamastan still exists in Gaza by then.
The same Hamas that continues to hold 50 Israeli hostages and 20 living hostages. The same Hamas that steals food from its people, executes its own people for perceived violations of Sharia law, committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, threatens to commit many more such massacres, uses rape as a weapon of war, and exists for the sole purpose of committing genocide. France and the UK insist on recognizing the fictitious state of “Palestine” while much of “Palestine" is governed by that organization.
What do they think the result could possibly be? Why would Hamas possibly give up the remaining hostages or show any flexibility in negotiations if it will receive official recognition from major Western powers without having to do anything? What possible motivation would it have to end its rule over Gaza if said rule is the reason the UK and France recognize "Palestine"?
It was the international pressure on Israel from countries like Britain and France that led Hamas to believe it was safe to torpedo the ceasefire talks last week. Despite the loss of nearly all of its leaders and the destruction of the fighting force it had at the start of the war, Hamas still believes that it can win the war on the ground by winning the propaganda war and through the aid of global antisemitism.
The governments of the UK and France know this. And still they do exactly what Hamas wants. Their worldviews are stuck in the last century and cannot adapt to the reality of 2025. They pursue a Palestinian Arab state at any cost, even if said cost is a Hamas-run state in which no Gazan is free and which is constantly attempting to commit genocide, even if said cost is the lives of all of the remaining hostages.
There is nothing moral about this. Rewarding evil is evil. Embracing evil is evil. These actions by France and Britain are evil. They are also stupid. The Two-State Solution died when Arafat rejected it and launched a campaign of mass murder instead 25 years ago. Attempting to revive its corpse is as futile as it is evil, because the corrupt and incompetent Mahmoud Abbas is as incapable of running a state as he is of stopping the payments he loves giving baby-killers.
By insisting on recognizing a Palestinian Arab state while Hamas continues to govern Gaza and while Hamas continues to hold hostages, Britain and France have declared that the lives of the hostages are cheap. They have declared that the lives of all of the innocent people who were butchered on October 7 were cheap. They have declared that the life of every Jewish child in Israel is cheap. They have declared that the lives of their own Jewish citizens are cheap, as they have added more fuel to the fire of the violent antisemitism raging across their nations.
If the hostages who are still alive as of today are not brought home alive, their blood will be on the heads of Britain and France. Their blood will be on the heads of Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer.
Gary Willigis a veteran member of the Arutz Sheva news staff.