Seth Mandel
Commentary, July 31, 2025
“The problem with this line of thinking is that it assumes these Western countries don’t want to escalate the situation. By all accounts they do …”
The dominoes have begun to fall regarding the recognition of Palestinian statehood. It’s time for the U.S. and Israel to make sure they have a strategy for dealing with the next two months of diplomatic pressure and the potential fallout.
The good news is that the Trump administration’s initial instincts seem to be fairly on-target, which is a helpful first step.
To review the past few days: Emmanuel Macron announced France would recognize the “state of Palestine” at September’s UN General Assembly in New York. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer then followed, saying that unless Israel met certain conditions—including a cease-fire that Starmer and Macron helped sabotage—Britain will join France in once again redrawing the Middle East in ways that make everyone unhappy. Then Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joined the chorus with a bizarre statement claiming the Palestinian Authority had made certain commitments, such as “not militarizing the state of Palestine,” and that’s enough for him.
Also Malta said it would recognize Palestine, but obviously nobody cares.
Promises of recognition will have no practical effect on the conflict outside of encouraging Hamas to keep the rest of the hostages and to stop negotiating for peace. The hostage families are furious, and rightly so: This is a chilling betrayal by supposed democracies.
The Trump administration’s initial responses seem to convey the right idea: The president criticized the announcements and even signaled that they could become stumbling blocks in U.S. relations with the countries behind them. More significantly, the administration sanctioned the Palestinian Authority and the PLO….SOURCE