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The Bloodier the Terror Attacks, the More Support for a Palestinian State

(Tablet) Eugene Kontorovich - Hamas's grisly terror raid on Oct. 7 has proved to be the single most stunningly successful act in gaining support for the Palestinian cause across the Western world. One might think that a campaign of unrepentant killing, torture, rape, and hostage-taking would be disqualifying. But in Washington, Hamas's ongoing crimes have resulted in much of the weight of the U.S. government being brought to bear on advancing the cause of Palestinian statehood. The Oct. 7 massacres made President Biden make the establishment of a Palestinian state with all deliberate speed a central priority of U.S. Middle East policy. International institutions such as the UN General Assembly and the International Criminal Court, seeing that Israel's protection by the U.S. has been lifted, have also showered gifts on the perpetrators of Oct. 7. The green light from the White House has given new life to efforts by NGOs to isolate and stigmatize the Jewish state. The recent wave of campus protests are the domestic mirror image of the administration's foreign policy, which elevates and rewards Palestinian terror. The specific identity of the perpetrators of gruesome violence does not account for Western advocacy on their behalf. That is explained only by the specific identity of the victims: Jews. This is the common thread that ties together support for Palestinian barbarism abroad and for antisemitic mobs at home. Supporters of Palestinian statehood have long maintained that if such a state were to attack Israel, the international community would support decisive Israeli actions to neutralize the threat. But the U.S. response to the Oct. 7 attack from Gaza, as well as to the subsequent attacks from Lebanon and Iran, shows the opposite. The atrocities a Palestinian state could inflict on an Israel reduced to the 1949 boundaries would make Oct. 7 look like a bar fight. The writer is a professor at George Mason University Law School and director of its Center on the Middle East and International Law.
2024-05-23 00:00:00
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