EDITORIAL: Premature statehood recognition attacks Israel

Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state is a direct endorsement of Hamas’ murderous actions of October 7.

It cannot be interpreted any other way.

It is a straight forward reward for the slaughter of 1200 innocent Israelis and kidnap of hundreds more.

It is the support of tyranny and terror over liberal democracy. It lends legitimacy to a maniacal regime which has no qualms about using its own people as human shields.

It is an attack on Israel

And it says to other extremist groups that the most effective way to reshape the world order according to their own ambitions and ideologies is through atrocity, destruction and hate.

It is not, as Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong naively claim, a “path to enduring peace and security for the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples”.

Not now.

Like most of the world, Australia has long been a supporter of a two-state solution. That stance is uncontroversial.

But to choose now to recognise a Palestinian state is a betrayal of our long-standing ally in Israel.

In practical terms, the move by Australia and other leftist governments including the UK, France and Canada, to recognise a sovereign Palestine accomplishes nothing.

Gazans remain under the yoke of Hamas. Israel will continue its bombardment. The humanitarian catastrophe that has shocked the world will continue unabated.

Palestine has no recognised borders, no real leaders, no effective government to speak of.

The Palestinian Authority does not have the capacity to deliver on any of the undertakings it has pledged.

Crucially, it is entirely powerless to compel the Hamas terrorists to lay down their arms or to abandon their mission to destroy Israel.

So Hamas will continue its jihad against the West. It will continue to offer up Gazans as human fodder, martyrs in Hamas’s campaign of hatred.

With an enemy on its doorstep committed to its annihilation, Israel will continue to defend itself and its citizens through the only means available to it — overwhelming force.

Israel is the only nation which has shown any appetite to rid the world of Hamas’ toxic influence.

And in return, the world has turned its back on Israel.

Palestinian recognition at this point is not an act which gets the world closer to peace. It doesn’t lessen the suffering of Palestinians.

It is an attack on Israel.

Recognition should come at the end of a peace process, not as reward for terror.

To be successful, a two-state solution must be one that guarantees the right of both parties — Israel and Palestine — to exist freely and peacefully. That condition does not exist, and so this is doomed to fail.

This premature move serves only to embolden terrorists, to isolate and humiliate Israel and to fulfil the undergraduate fantasies of Mr Albanese and Ms Wong of gifting nationhood to Palestinians.

But when the history books are written, they will not be lauded as heroes in this struggle, but as the naive pawns of a hateful regime.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.