Will European Recognition of Palestinian Statehood Yield Tangible Results?

Nov. 26 2014

The Spanish and British parliaments have voted to recognize a fictive Palestinian state; the Swedish government has also recognized such a state; and France is poised to be next. In the short run, these declarations are meaningless and purely symbolic. But, argues Guy Millière, they may soon add up to something:

The next step in anti-Israeli offensives will take place very soon. Mahmoud Abbas and the “Palestinian” leaders will go to the United Nations, and seek recognition of a “Palestinian State” by the UN Security Council. If they succeed, “Palestine” could become a full member-state of the UN without having to make any concessions to anyone at all—and free to continue inciting terror, committing terror, and glorifying those who practice terror. Abbas and Palestinian leaders might then demand that the Security Council set a deadline for Israel’s withdrawal to the “pre-1967 lines.”

France and the United Kingdom and will abstain, which will mean that they agree. The only thing that can prevent all this is a U.S. veto. However, relations between the United States and Israel have so deeply deteriorated since the beginning of the Obama presidency that many Israeli diplomats think a U.S. veto uncertain.

Read more at Gatestone

More about: Barack Obama, Europe and Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian statehood, UN, United Kingdom

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023