The Palestinian Authority’s president has devoted years to stunts ostensibly aimed at gaining recognition of a Palestinian state, the latest of which is his new plan to sue Britain for issuing the Balfour declaration in 1917. But, Benny Avni writes, he has shown little interest in actually creating such a state:

Abbas has already raised a Palestinian flag at Manhattan’s First Avenue UN headquarters and received blessings for a Palestinian state in places like Geneva, Sweden, Mauritania, and the back pages of U.S. party platforms. Yet he has proved completely useless in creating a state on the West Bank.

And his attempt to pretend that the last century of history—in which Jews created an independent and thriving state—never happened raises suspicions that Abbas never really was all that comfortable with the existence of Israel on lands Arabs consider their own. . . .

So all those who get so exercised about how the two-state solution is represented in American party platforms had better relax. America, Britain, Europe, and even Israel won’t prevent Palestinians from peacefully living and thriving in an independent state. As they always have, only Palestinians will.

As for that other side of the vaunted two-state solution: [Abbas] can’t turn back the clock to 1917, or any other time in history. So Israel will continue to flourish, with or without Palestine by its side.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.