MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS MAY 29 2024
Spain, Ireland, and Norway appeared on domestic news broadcasts for the first time in the better part of a century because they made an asinine statement regarding the fictional state of Palestine: They declared that they recognize a state that does not exist, has no functional government, borders or citizenry. If they got on the podium and announced that they recognized Never-Never Land, Narnia, or Wakanda, the leaders of those countries would have been rightly mocked. Instead, in our backwards world, they are lauded. For all their blubbering pronouncements, there will never be a Palestinian state, for obvious reasons.
First is the issue of borders. The entire nationalistic Palestinian cause was founded in 1964, when the West Bank was annexed territory of Jordan and the Gaza Strip was under the military governorship of Egypt. The goal of the Arab League when they created the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and placed Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat in charge was to take over the entirety of Israel. There was never a demand for Egypt or Jordan to relinquish their territories; the only target of land acquisition was from the Jewish state.
That goal never changed. When Israel won the West Bank (thus reaffirming its correct biblical name of Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians who were living in those areas had no status change. They continued to be refugees, this time under Israeli authority rather than Jordanian or Egyptian. The only thing that changed was the narrative around what Israel should give up to “make peace” with the people who demand their destruction. No matter what Israel offered, the Palestinians rejected.
Palestinians could have had a state when Oslo I and II were offered. They could have had a state in 2000 and 2008 when nearly all of Judea and Samaria was offered to them. Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas have rejected everything, and directed terrorist attacks on civilian Israeli population centers. In Gaza, they had a de facto state from 2005. What did they do? They spent the next 18 years attacking Israel in a vain attempt to conquer it, which culminated in October 7. There is no indication – none – that the Palestinian people are interested in making a state in anything but the entirety of Israel. As their own chant goes, “From the river to the sea.”
There are more reasons why they are not interested in their own state next to Israel. The entire Palestinian economy is propped up on international aid through UNRWA because they claim to be the fourth generation of refugees from the 1948 war. These are the only people who desire refugee status in world history. They do so while living in cities with multi-story buildings, which is also unique to all refugees in world history. If they have a state, they give up that status, and thus lose all of the UNRWA funding.
They also would have to give up on their demands, including the so-called “right of return.” The Palestinians claim that they have a right to go back to the areas of Israel that their great-grandparents abandoned when the five invading Arab nations told them to get out of the way while they killed the Jews. This has been a false promise made to the Palestinian people by their leaders and the international community – one of many – and is a lie. The Jews who were expelled from Poland, Spain, Russia, Iran, Morocco, and a dozen other countries throughout the millennia have a greater claim than the Palestinians do to demand citizenship in those countries. A demand like that, however, would be laughable. No one has a “right of return” to a country from which their ancestors originated. Even less so when the ancestors abandoned that home at the behest of an invading army. Palestinians demand it, however, and will not give it up.
So why are Spain, Ireland, and Norway making this claim now? Why are they recognizing a state that both doesn’t exist and doesn’t even want to exist? The answer is as cynical as can possibly be. This is the cause du jour. This is what the liberal elites who want to be seen as “progressive” are doing to stay “in” with the young crowd. They are playing to the most ignorant and immoral of their voter bases to win future elections.
Meanwhile, they are rewarding terrorism. None of these countries recognized Palestine on October 6. Only after Hamas murder 1,200 Jews and kidnapped 250 more did this recognition happen. This move was praised by Hamas – and why shouldn’t it be? Spain, Ireland, and Norway have literally taken the Hamas propaganda and made it their official foreign policy. Terrorism works when world leaders are weak. We’ve already seen this happening in America, and it will continue to happen until new, stronger leaders are elected.
