Starmer’s policy rewards terror, makes peace more remote and prolongs the war – a folly driven by hysteria, whipped up by a relentless drumbeat of lies against Israel
September 22, 2025 11:22
In his Rosh Hashanah greeting, published in this newspaper, Sir Keir Starmer stressed that he and his government “stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish community”. Many, however, will feel his real new year message came on the eve of the High Holidays, when he ignored the pleas of our community and dealt a heavy blow to peace by recognising a Palestinian state without conditions.
Recognition falsely assumes that the absence of a Palestinian state is the root of the conflict – and that Israel is to blame. It is not. The Palestinians have rejected statehood time and again. This refusal to accept concrete offers for a two-state solution if it means living alongside a Jewish one created the conflict and continues to fuel it.
Whatever Western leaders thought of Israeli settlement policies, they long understood how dysfunctional the Palestinian side was. That is why, until October 7, nobody considered recognition remotely constructive. Then came the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust – and suddenly it became the “moral” thing to do.
Recognition not only rewards terror but retroactively legitimises it. Born of such a fundamental falsehood, it can only inflame the conflict. And here lies the ultimate folly: recognition, far from being “pro-Palestinian”, let alone “pro-peace”, makes a ceasefire and the hostages’ release less likely by strengthening Hamas. It will help prolong the war and suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians. Jerusalem, fearing the emergence of a hostile state, will harden its stance to prevent it; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already promised counter-measures.
Yet even as recognition strengthened Hamas, Starmer insisted – unconvincingly – that Britain was sidelining it: “Our call for a genuine two-state solution is the exact opposite of their hateful vision.” Hamas immediately corrected him. Thanking the UK, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi hailed the move as a “victory” for October 7.
Nothing was demanded of Hamas as a precondition. The pleas of hostage families and Jewish organisations – to insist, at the very least, on the release of captives – were brushed aside. Nor was anything required of the Palestinian Authority, the supposed leader of this “new state.” Instead, we are told once again that President Abbas will at last enact “reforms” – code for ending such horrendous practices as stipends to terrorists, antisemitic incitement in schools, and systemic corruption. He has failed to do so throughout the 20 years of his four-year term. Now, with recognition handed to him on a silver platter, will he suddenly change?
The measure of betrayal felt in Israel is evident in the fact that it has managed to unite the opposition with a government they normally fight on almost everything else. Yair Lapid called the move “a reward for terror.” Benny Gantz said it “emboldens Hamas.” Yair Golan, chairman of the left-wing Democrats party, described it as “destructive.”
The Prime Minister tried to sugar the pill by announcing this government’s first sanctions on Hamas. Welcome though they are, they are also an indictment: such measures should have been imposed long ago, on their own merits, not grudgingly now to dress up a disastrous policy.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy claimed recognition was necessary because the ceasefire “lies in tatters”. But that ceasefire lies in tatters in no small part thanks to the very policy the UK claims will help revive it. Washington has confirmed that the announcement of European recognition emboldened Hamas to scupper delicate hostage negotiations.
Families of hostages are outraged, as are Jewish organisations. But electorally, they don’t count. Nor, it seems, do the 87 per cent of Britons who oppose recognition without conditions. Common sense remains abundant among the public. It is absent among those who govern us, who allow a radical, sectarian minority to dictate UK policy.
This rush to “do something,” however counterproductive, is driven by the relentless drumbeat of propaganda against the Jewish state. Vile lies have been heaped on Israel, whipping up hysteria. Instead of challenging them, this government – like much of Europe – has sometimes echoed them, creating the very panic now driving this disastrous move.
Although Britain’s own legal advisers have ruled out genocide, ministers refuse to say so plainly. Instead, senior Labour figures repeat the same accusations built on twisted law and fabricated facts. The “big lie” – once deployed by the Nazis against Jews – is now directed against the Jewish state: an accusation so outrageous that ordinary people can hardly imagine anyone would invent it.
Accusations of genocide, famine, apartheid all collapse under scrutiny, yet spread precisely because of their scale. As Israel is demonised, Jews everywhere are endangered. In France, nearly one in five say violence against Jews is justified because of Gaza. Is Britain immune to such violent sentiments?
And yet the UK will now line up at the UN General Assembly alongside some of the world’s most despicable regimes in a witch-hunt against Israel, where recognition will be presented as a response to Israel’s alleged crimes.
Recognition without conditions is no step towards peace. It is a betrayal of the hostages, a gift to Hamas, a green light to Israel’s enemies, and a blow to those Palestinians who genuinely seek a state prepared to live in peace with its Jewish neighbour. Destructive symbolism has triumphed over effective policies – and extremism will be the winner.
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