By: The Editorial Board – wsj.com – September 22, 2025

After Oct. 7, nations grant recognition even without reconciliation.

That much is clear again this week, as France, the U.K., Australia, Canada and some others recognize a Palestinian state as punishment for Israel. They hardly even pretend that Palestine meets the criteria for statehood. They don’t frame recognition as the assessment of Palestinian sovereignty it should be.

Instead they use recognition as a political statement against the Israeli war effort. The stakes are sanctions on Israel in the future and a victory for Hamas today.

That’s how it has been received by Israel, across the political spectrum, and by Hamas itself. “Why are all these countries recognizing Palestine now?” Hamas Politburo member Ghazi Hamad asked on Al Jazeera. “The fruits of Oct. 7”—the 2023 massacre that he vows to repeat—“are what caused the world to open its eyes to the Palestinian cause.”

Slaughter Jews, hold hostages long enough, use enough Gazans as human shields, and you get your own state. In his fixation on the Israeli military response, French President Emmanuel Macron helps Mr. Hamad turn Oct. 7 into Palestinian independence day.

In leading his group of mainly left-of-center governments, Mr. Macron claims he is “isolating Hamas,” since the terrorist group opposes a two-state solution. Hamas does so because that solution requires Palestinians to make peace with Israel. But these recognitions disconnect statehood from any peace agreement, granting recognition even without reconciliation. They give Hamas what it wants.

Why not demand that steps toward peace come first rather than settle for Palestinian Authority “commitments” that may never be delivered? Why not condition recognition on the release of all hostages and exile of Hamas? That would make Hamas’s rejectionism the obstacle to a Palestinian victory instead of its midwife.

Rather than isolate Hamas, Mr. Macron acts to isolate Israel. This brings a Palestinian state no closer. On Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis saw one vision of Palestinian nationalism in action. They also saw Hamas gain support among Palestinians afterward, and Israel condemned for fighting back. Israelis will now need to see something different from Palestinians to be convinced that murdering Jews isn’t their nationalism’s essence.

If not, why should Israelis believe a West Bank state wouldn’t soon look like Gaza and prepare another Oct. 7-style attack? And that the world wouldn’t blame Israel in the aftermath? Mr. Macron didn’t help on Thursday when he told CBS News, “There is no Hamas in the West Bank.” But everyone knows there is.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said recognition is meant to “revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution.” His deputy David Lammy added that “we are some significant distance from two states.” All of which makes it puzzling that they are committing the U.K. to the claim that the second state already exists.

Recognizing the state is intended as safe diplomatic theater for their Western domestic audiences, detached from the harsh Middle East reality: The Palestinians have consistently chosen the struggle to destroy Israel rather than the offer of a state alongside it.

To say, let them have both, as France, the U.K., Canada, Australia et al. now say, is to make Hamas’s day.

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Source: A Palestinian State for Hamas – WSJ