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Brazil, the leading power in Latin America, has formally recognised a Palestinian state on 1967 lines. News agencies reported that the announcement was made on the Brazilian foreign ministry’s website. This is a matter of the profoundest significance since Palestinian leaders have been increasingly vocal in recent weeks and months in saying they will make a unilateral declaration of independence in the middle of 2011 and then seek recognition through the United Nations. Now that one of the most important emerging economies in the world –Brazil is one of the much vaunted BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) tipped by many to become a major world power in the 21st century — has made such a move, the risk of an avalanche is very real.

It needs to be understood why this is so dangerous, both to Israel and to the cause of peace. First, the Brazilian move, if copied by many others, all but scuppers any hope of meaningful peace talks. Why would the Palestinians make concessions or negotiate for something the world is going to give them anyway? Second, for Israel the 1967 lines are militarily indefensible and no Israeli government could ever agree to them as the borders of a Palestinian state. Recognition along 1967 lines would therefore place Israel in a state of perpetual conflict with the Palestinians and the international community. Thirdly, it would risk inciting Palestinian society to more violence. In the absence of a peace agreement negotiated between the parties, a declaration of independence would turn the Israelis from “occupiers” to “invaders” in the eyes of the Palestinians, thus providing a new pretext for terrorism.

Agence France Presse reported that the Brazilian move had been immediately condemned by US politicians including Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who said it was “regrettable and will only serve to undermine peace and security in the Middle East.” Democratic Representative Eliot Engel said the move was “severely misguided and represents a last gasp by a Lula-led foreign policy which was already substantially off track.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered formal recognition of the Palestinian state in a letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on December 1. The announcement was put up on the foreign ministry’s website on Friday.

It is now imperative that the United States leads by example in publicly denouncing the Brazilian move. This is important since France, to name but one important western country, has been making noises in the direction of supporting the unilateralist route if peace talks fail.