Let’s begin with a charitable assumption: that the Western governments rushing to recognize a Palestinian Arab state are motivated by good intentions. They are tired of the bloodshed. They want a diplomatic resolution. They believe recognition will jumpstart peace. In their minds, they are helping.
But history is littered with disasters born from well-meaning ignorance. Recognition of Palestinian Arab statehood under current conditions is not a bold peace initiative, it is a geopolitical farce, one that will reward terrorists, entrench dictatorships, and lead to greater bloodshed for Israelis and Palestinian Arabs alike. Here are some of the reasons why this move is not just unwise, it is idiotic.
Let me be blunt; if your political strategy to recognize the State of "Palestine" is built on the ashes of October 7 then it’s a deeply flawed strategy. Recognizing a Palestinian Arab state after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is the international equivalent of sending flowers to the funeral and then handing the killer a Nobel Peace Prize.
The governments pushing this are not sending a message of peace, they are sending a message that terrorism works. And Hamas is listening. So is Hezbollah. So is Iran. The civilized world is supposed to isolate and punish regimes that glorify the mass murder of civilians. Yet here, they are legitimizing it, supporting it. This is not peacemaking, it is appeasement with blood on its hands.
In international law, a state requires four basic elements: a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning government, and the capacity to engage in relations with other states. The Palestinian Authority territories do not score a passing grade: no borders have been agreed, and no peace treaty has been signed. There is no functioning, unified government, only two rival terrorist organizations at war with each other. Recognition under these conditions is not diplomatic, it is delusional. It turns international law into performance theater. You don’t get to conjure a state out of political convenience.
This is the question no one wants to answer: who exactly is in charge of this state you’re recognizing? Is it Hamas, the genocidal terror group that explicitly calls for Israel’s destruction, funds its army with foreign humanitarian aid, uses its 2 million civilians as human shields, and indoctrinates children to become martyrs? Or is it the Palestinian Authority, a kleptocratic regime that incites violence, pays salaries and pensions to terrorists through its “pay to slay” policy, and glorifies Jew-killers as national heroes?
Both are corrupt. Neither respects human rights, free speech, religious pluralism, women’s rights, or gay rights. This will not be a peaceful, liberal democracy next door. It will be a failed, terror-ridden dictatorship with a seat at the UN. Why are Western democracies so desperate to create another Islamist dictatorship in the Middle East?
The people of Gaza are not free. The people in the "West Bank" are not free. What they deserve first and foremost is freedom, not from Israel, but from the terror groups and corrupt elites that rule over them. Unilateral recognition of statehood does nothing to liberate them. It entrenches their suffering by empowering the same tyrants who have hijacked their future for decades. It shackles them to regimes that thrive on perpetual conflict.
How cynical must one be to watch Palestinian Arab civilians living under brutal regimes and then say, “Let’s reward their oppressors with sovereignty”? If we truly care about Palestinian Arabs, and do not consider them all terror enableres, we should demand that any future state be democratic, pluralistic, and committed to peace, not a dictatorship built on antisemitism and terrorism. Until then, statehood is not a gift. It’s a curse.
The Palestinian Arabs are among the most manipulated people in modern history. Used as pawns by Arab dictators, abandoned by their own leaders, and now weaponized against Israel by an international community that forces them into perpetual conflict (if they are not willing partners, ed.). You want to help the Palestinian Arabs? Don’t hand power to their oppressors. Demand internal reform. Like in Germany after WWII, demand de-Nazification by peace education. Demand democracy.
This is perhaps the most damning point of all: unilateral recognition of Palestinian Arab statehood will not bring peace. It will bring war. We’ve been here before. The last time the international community rushed toward a diplomatic solution divorced from reality, we got the Oslo Accords. The result was thousands of Israeli civilians murdered in bus bombings, shootings, and stabbings during the Second Intifada.
And when in 2005 Israel handed Gaza on a free platter to the Palestinian Arabs, the people (in their one and only free election) elected Hamas who then fulfilled their unambiguous mandate by building a terror state. History is not kind to those who substitute wishful thinking for sober realism. The Palestinian Arab leadership has shown again and again that it views diplomacy as a tactic, not a goal. They do not seek a two-state solution. They seek a one-state solution without Jews.
Every time the Palestinian Arab cause is rewarded without conditions or accountability, the region slides closer to war. Anyone who thinks recognition will end the conflict does not understand the conflict. This fantasy of Palestinian Arab statehood will embolden extremists, destabilize the region, and drag both Palestinian Arabs and Israelis into another bloody chapter of conflict.
The last time the world embraced such wishful thinking, it also did not end well. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared “peace in our time” after signing the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, giving the Nazi regime control of Czechoslovakia. It was the diplomatic equivalent of handing your home to an arsonist because he promises he’s done burning things. The world applauded. Hitler laughed and marched forward. Just like today, the architects of appeasement are motivated by peace. But peace divorced from truth is not peace, it is surrender.
The governments pushing for Palestinian statehood recognition want to be seen as bold, moral, and peace-driven. But morality without clarity is dangerous, and diplomacy without reality is suicidal. There is no shortcut to peace, and no reward for fantasy. Just as the world once mistakenly convinced itself that Yasser Arafat was a statesman rather than a terrorist, we are again playing make-believe, and real lives will pay the price.
Here’s the truth; this is why Israelis today overwhelmingly oppose a Palestinian Arab State; they have been forced by terror and war to face reality, and they are paying the price for the delusional diplomatic strategies of the past 30 years. We sincerely want peace, but at the same time we understand with a clarity earned by blood that unilateral recognition of Palestinian Arab statehood today is not a courageous act. It is an act of cowardice, the cowardice of refusing to confront the real problems and instead settling for a symbolic gesture that will only make everything worse.
To reward terrorism, legalize dysfunction, and empower tyranny is not diplomacy. It is cowardice dressed as compassion. If we want peace, we must start with truth.
And the truth is: this is not a state, it is a mess of terror, tyranny, and tragedy. Let’s stop pretending otherwise.
Rabbi Raphael Shore is the Executive Chairman of OpenDor Media, an award winning filmmaker and Author of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Jew: Learning to Love the Lessons of Jew-Hatred