Ottawa, Ontario (AP) – France, UK and Canada announced plans Recognizing the Palestinian state They were able to further segregate Israel and strengthen the Palestinian negotiating position for the long term, but not immediately bring about it.
The problem for Palestinians is that it may not be long-term.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Rejecting the Palestinian state He vowed to maintain free control over the annexed East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Israeli leaders support the full annexation of many of the West Bank that Israel is already building Over 100 villages Over 500,000 Jewish settlers are housed. Israeli attacks in Gaza have reduced most of them to smoldering wastelands And pushing it into starvationIsrael says it is pushing for plans to relocate much of its population of around 2 million. In other countries.
The United States is the only country with actual leverage through Israel, I’ve been on that side.
Critics say these countries can do more
Palestinians have welcomed international support for decades of quest for the nation, but say there are more urgent measures that the West could take if they want to put pressure on Israel.
“The reaction to Gaza’s daily atrocities, including those by all accounts, is a bit strange Deliberate hunger v“They’re not just going to be able to get to know each other,” said Khaled Elgindi, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
“It looks like the way these countries seem to be doing something,” he said.
Fati Nima, a policy fellow at Palestinian think tank Al Shabaka, says he was able to suspend trade agreements with Israel and impose arms embargoes and other sanctions. “There are a wide range of tools set up at the freedom of these countries, but there is no political will to use them,” he said.
It’s not a completely empty gesture
While most countries in the world recognized Palestinian states decades ago, the UK and France became third and fourth permanent members of the UN Security Council, leaving the US as their only holdout.
“We’re talking about major countries and major Israeli allies,” said Aron Pinas, Israeli political analyst and former consul general in New York. “They are segregated from the United States, they are dependent on Israel — not the United States, but on the whims and unstable behavior, Trump.”
The approval could bolster the move to prevent annexation, said Hugh Lovatt, a dispute expert at the European Council of Foreign Relations. The challenge is “for those who recognize that the country aligns awareness with other steps, practical steps,” he said.
It could also prove important if Israelis and Palestinians resume long-term peace processes based on halting after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in 2009.
“At some point, if negotiations of sorts resume, rather than perhaps in the near future, then at some point we’re putting Palestine on a more equal footing,” said Julie Norman, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the University of London.
“It certainly has a nation as a starting point for those negotiations, not an invalid endpoint.”
Israel calls it a reward for violence
The Israeli government and most of its political class were opposed to the Palestinian state long before Hamas on October 7, 2023, but the attacks sparked war.
Netanyahu says that creating a Palestinian state will reward Hamas and ultimately lead to a larger Hamas-run state at the Israeli border. Hamas Leader I sometimes suggested it They will accept the state at the border in 1967, but the group is officially committed to the destruction of Israel.
Western countries imagine a future Palestinian state, democratic, embracing Israel and led by Hamas political rivals that help suppress extremist groups; He won the parliamentary election in 2006. The following year, electricity was seized in Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas controls parts of the West Bank, where his powers are occupied, supports solutions for the two states and is working with Israel on security issues. He made it A series of concessions over the past few monthsincluding providing scholarships to Israel’s holdings of prisoners and announcing the end of Palestinian authorities’ practices to kill extremists.
Such measures, along with security adjustments, are deeply unpopular with Palestinians and have yet to benefit from Israel or the Trump administration. Israel says Abbas is accusing him of not being sincerely committed to peace and tolerating incitement and extremists.
Lovatt says there is much to criticize the PA, but “the failure of the Palestinian leader is exaggerated to help Israel ease its own obligation.”
The tide may be turning, but it’s not fast enough
If Palestinians were told in September 2023 that major countries were trying to recognize the state, the UN Supreme Court said He ordered Israel to end the occupationInternational Criminal Court He ordered Netanyahu to be arrested.and that prominent voice From the entire political spectrum of the United States They might have thought that they had a nation’s dream at hand, because they were furious with Israel.
However, their development is pale compared to the ongoing war in Gaza But it’s just as destructive Military attacks on the West Bank. Israel’s Military victory over Iran and its allies It leaves it to the dominant and almost challenging military force in the region, and Trump is the most powerful supporter he has ever had in the White House.
“This (Israel) government is not going to change its policy,” Pinkus said. “The issues of perception, the end of the war, humanitarian aid — it will all have to wait for another government.”
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The contribution was made by Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless in London.
