British grandstanding on Palestinian statehood

Our British Prime Minister recently decided that the government would recognise “Palestine” as a state despite its non-existence.

I have three points to make on this subject.

(1) Who and what are being recognised?

Sir Keir Starmer maintains that Hamas can have “no future, no role in government, no role in security” in a Palestinian state. But this is delusional. The PCPSR regularly conducts polling across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Highlights from their recent polling: 

• “Only half of the Palestinians in the current poll view Hamas’ decision to carry out the October 7 attack as “correct.”” (Note: “ONLY” 50%!)
• “Despite the declining favorability of October 7, most of the public continue to believe the attack and the following war have placed the Palestinian issue at the center of global attention.”
• “Still, a plurality of the public believes that Hamas will continue to control the Gaza Strip after the war ...”
• “... this is why the overwhelming majority is opposed to a Hamas disarmament or the departure of its military leadership from the Gaza Strip.”

The question is: what would the government’s position be if Hamas (or some Islamist variant) emerges as the winning party in a fresh round of Palestinian elections? Probably no answer.

(2) The underlying causes of a lack of a Palestinian state need to be addressed

As I have pointed out above, not only do polls show Hamas winning elections, but that we can be assured Hamas will plunge them immediately back into war if given the chance. 

The underlying causes need to be addressed. 

Israel still deals with 200-400 terror attacks per year from the WB - to say nothing of Gaza. The denazification of Germany is something we need to think about - but it seems that Islamism might be something considerably harder to address (especially when “almost 90% of the public believes Hamas men did not commit the atrocities depicted in videos taken on that day”). As history shows, Arab negotiators have consistently rejected offers of a Palestinian state so many times (the 1947 UN Partition plan, Camp David summit, the Clinton Parameters, the Ehud Olmert peace offer, or Donald Trump’s 2020 “Peace to Prosperity” plan). While Israel is the object of endless criticism, there is no acknowledgment that the counter-“problem” is fundamentally that Israel exists at all.

That’s why merely “giving them a state” and “the vote” - a la the Western tradition - isn’t the answer. The governments of Jordan and Egypt aren’t popularly elected. They don’t reflect sentiments on the street. I think it’s fair to say that nasty religious extremists tend to win elections in the Middle East - e.g. Egypt. A similar arrangement needs to happen in Palestine with a strong leader (backed up by a ruling elite) that regard peace with Israel and a 2SS as benefiting them - completely irrespective of what the street thinks - and who can seriously crack down on terrorism. I say this as a believe in liberal democracy.

As for deradicalisation, I think that Palestinian society need to really accept certain facts:

1. The Jews are human beings with dignity and should not be killed - A great first step would be expelling UNRWA from both the WB and Gaza. They have been seriously complicit in the indoctrination of Palestinian children to murder Jews, and other nasty things. Ideally, moderate Palestinian teachers would replace them under Israeli oversight but they only make up a minority of the population which is a problem.
2. The Arabs lost the 1948 War and the Six-Day War - They lost. Completely lost. Need to move on. We can’t keep fighting forever. 
3. Hamas did indeed commit genocide and war crimes on Oct-7 - Germany’s own process of denazification came internally from a recognition that things had to change. The same for Palestinians. They need to stop making excuses or shifting responsibility. 

None of this is even remotely possible until after Hamas is defeated and Gaza is fully demilitarised.

(3) Siding with fascism

It’s very strange to me that people (especially left-wingers who invariably bleat on endlessly about “fascism”, “Nazism”, “antifa” etc.) stand squarely on the side of the most evil fascistic regime on Earth.

Statehood seriously legitimises Hamas’ military rationale. I.e., but for the unalloyed horror of Oct-7, we probably wouldn’t be discussing a two-state solution. Events would be permitted to carry on until things change organically. Instead, invading neighbours, viciously killing thousands of innocents and taking hostages is rendered a winning strategy. It legitimises using your own citizens as human shields and trading their inevitable deaths as useful propaganda. 

Immediately after the PM’s statements, “Hamas declares ‘victory’ after UK recognition of Palestine” (Telegraph, Sept 2025):

Hamas has declared victory for “the justice of our cause” after Sir Keir Starmer announced Britain would recognise Palestinian statehood. In a video message on Sunday, Sir Keir insisted the move, one of the most significant shifts in British foreign policy in decades, was “not a reward for Hamas”. But Mahmoud Mardaw, a senior Hamas official, claimed it represented “a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause” and would “send a clear message” to Israel. On Sunday night, US president Donald Trump said the decision was “rewarding Hamas”. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, he added: “I don’t think they should be rewarded. I am not in that camp, to be honest.”

I don’t understand how the government aren’t embarrassed by this.

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Finally, I recommend the Telegraph’s recent editorial on the subject, “Recognising a nation that doesn’t exist can only be a foolish gesture” (Sept 2025):

Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to recognise Palestine as a state despite its non-existence is a reckless exercise in virtue signalling designed to appease Labour Left-wingers and curry favour with leaders like Emmanuel Macron. The French president addressed the opening day of the UN General Assembly in New York to extol his own contribution to this policy.

He said momentum towards the “two-state solution” to the Middle East conflict, which has long been a UN ambition, needed to be revived. But does this have any practical effect? The United States is opposed to recognising the state of Palestine and without pressure from Washington the Israeli government will not change course. 

Although four of the five permanent members of the UN security council support Palestinian statehood, the US retains a veto. Notably, other big European states like Germany and Italy have not joined Britain and France.

The fact is that there is no state of Palestine, though there could have been had various leaders down the years, notably Yasser Arafat, agreed to a peace settlement. But while they wanted a Palestinian state, what they didn’t want was a Jewish state. The destruction of Israel remains the principal objective of Hamas and other militant movements.

The Government insists that recognition is not just a symbolic move but it is hard to see it as anything other than that. Indeed, it has pushed Israel into threatening to extend or even annex its settlements in the West Bank. The position of the Palestinians could be worsened in order to make Western politicians feel better about themselves, ending any prospect of a two-state solution.