Palestinian Statehood Would Benefit Everyone

Ever since the United Nations GA Resolution 181 (II) called for the coexistence of a Palestinian state and a Jewish state in 1947, the Palestinians have been without unanimous worldwide recognition of sovereign statehood. This coming September, however, chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas will likely petition the UN General Assembly for official statehood.

This May, U.S. President Barack Obama gave an interview with Andrew Marr of BBC in which he insisted, despite pressuring Israel to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority regarding land swaps, that the United States would not support Abbas’ impetus for “formal recognition of statehood” from the United Nations. “The notion that you can solve this problem in the United Nations is unrealistic,” he said, further asserting that it was not worth the world’s time to negotiate with Hamas. However, the truth is that Palestine’s statehood has no bearing on the future of Hamas. Hamas will not dissolve, regardless of whether a Palestinian state is declared or not.

Should the Palestinians demonstrate an inability to control terrorist activity directed at Israel while in possession of their own state, Israel would have the right to defend her civilians and her borders. Israel would not be forced into unwinnable, abstract “Intifada” games. Instead of a Sisyphean struggle of a war against a stateless, faceless people, there would exist a war against a real state responsible for its own actions. Israel, in turn, would be freed of its unearned pariah status and the stigma of South Africa-esque colonialism. 

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