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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21926/palestinians-qatar-israel-peace

The main stumbling block to Trump’s repeated efforts to end the conflict in Gaza, though, remains the fact that Palestinian leaders, and Qatar, have no genuine interest in negotiating a permanent peace deal with Israel.

Qatar, as well as other Gulf States, which reportedly are expected to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, will doubtless demand a role in its future governance. Such a concession, even if Israel were to monitor security, would be a monumental recipe for disaster.

Qatar has a history of funding effectively all radical Islamic terrorist groups — from ISIS to Al-Qaeda to Hamas to the Taliban –and appears solidly committed to furthering the policies of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Even if Hamas is not included in a future Gaza, there is always room theoretically for a clone of Hamas with a different name. As Egypt and Islamist groups continue smuggling weapons into the “new” Gaza, there will undoubtedly be endless friction with Israel, not to mention the Palestinians whom the current negotiators insist stay in place. With sufficient incentives, many countries might be glad to spare them years of living in rubble.

The best idea, and in the long run far less expensive militarily and diplomatically, would be if Trump would return to his original idea of Gaza as a kind of US-Israeli “Riviera” protectorate, preferably with a US military base. Then one would not even need any further Abraham Accords: a US military presence should be sufficient to deter aggression and keep peace — as it has done so successfully in Qatar.

Not all Arab states might like this approach. It certainly would deprive them of the opportunity, should the winds change, of trying again to destroy Israel.

So even if, as Trump insists, Hamas is excluded from any future negotiations on the future of Gaza and the Palestinians, the likelihood of his administration having any positive talks with so-called “moderate” Palestinian leaders, such as Abbas — or any prospects of a true, long-term peace if Arab countries are allowed to run Gaza — sadly, the end to decades of hostility will continue to be non-existent.

There is one major drawback to US President Donald Trump’s latest effort to end the Gaza conflict: Palestinian leaders and some Gulf Arab states — in particular Qatar (such as here, here, here, here and here) — have absolutely no intention of agreeing to, or implementing, a lasting peace deal with Israel.

For nearly eight decades, Palestinian leaders have consistently rejected offers to end hostilities with Israel.

While Mahmoud Abbas, the so-called “moderate” leader of the Palestinian Authority, has said he is willing to work with the Trump administration on a peace plan for Gaza, the chances of any negotiations with the Palestinians reaching a successful conclusion are remote if their track record is anything to go by.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21923/emmanuel-macron-is-clueless-on-the-palestinians

“[Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] has asserted his commitment to fighting hate speech and has promised a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance.” –French President Emmanuel Macron, timesofisrael.com, September 23, 2025

Abbas, unfortunately, has been promising sweeping government and security reforms ever since he assumed power in 2005. Palestinians have yet to see even the slightest change in anything.

[Abbas] had two entire decades to reform the PA, but did not seize the opportunity to end rampant corruption or make any changes in the PA that might be constructive for his people. Even the garbage disposal is toxic.

The results of these polls show that a majority of Palestinians do not share the French president’s optimism regarding the implementation of government, security and economic reforms.

While Macron seems to have taken at face value Abbas’s commitment to launch a “thorough overhaul” of the PA, most Palestinians, according to the polls, have not.

Macron is overly optimistic, if not pathetically naïve, regarding the prospects of democracy in a future Palestinian state.

Macron and other Western leaders, if they believe that the PA will change for the better, at least in the foreseeable future, are living in a fantasy world…. Even if a Palestinian state is created, it will be ruled either by Abbas’s corrupt Fatah faction or Hamas.

In contrast to idealists and politicians such as Macron, the UK’s Keir Starmer, Canada’s Mark Carney and Australia’s Anthony Albanese, who are evidently terrified of their Muslim voters, the Palestinians at least are realistic. They are only too aware that their leaders will keep on providing them with nothing but anguish and misery.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in his speech before the United Nations during the “High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” on September 22, justified his decision to recognize a Palestinian state by arguing that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had promised “a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance.”

Macron expressed hope that the new Palestinian state would protect “democratic expression”:

“The State of Palestine will also have to give new hope to its population, worn down by years of violence and occupation but also division and negligence. It will therefore have to provide its people with a new and secure framework for democratic expression. President Mahmoud Abbas has made that commitment to [Saudi Arabia’s Crown] Prince Mohammad bin Salman and to me. He has strongly condemned the [Hamas-led] terrorist attack of October 7, 2023. He has confirmed his support for the disarmament of Hamas and has committed to excluding it from the future governance of Gaza and the entire Palestinian territory. He has asserted his commitment to fighting hate speech and has promised a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance.”

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/23/starmer-has-rewarded-the-terrorists-and-abandoned-the-hostages/

Keir Starmer’s recognition of a Palestinian state raises far more questions than it answers. Palestine, after all, has none of the qualities of a state, having no settled borders and no legitimate leadership. Worse, Starmer’s decision has angered key allies in Israel and the US, while delighting the Islamist terrorists of Hamas.

Andrew Fox – former British Army officer and co-host of The Brink – sat down with Fraser Myers to discuss the grave implications of Starmer’s decision. What follows is an edited version of that conversation. You can watch the full interview here.

Fraser Myers: Starmer insists his recognition of Palestine is of no benefit to Hamas. Do you agree with that?

Andrew Fox: Well, Hamas certainly doesn’t agree, having described it as a reward for 7 October. On top of that, it’s also being reported that Palestine now plans to sue the United Kingdom for up to a trillion pounds in compensation for the way it divided up the land in 1948. So all in all, Starmer has rewarded terrorism, potentially put us into an international court battle with the Palestinians, extended the war in Gaza and probably killed the hostages. A phenomenal day’s work by our prime minister.

Myers: Some are saying the recognition of Palestine is merely symbolic. How do you respond to that?

Fox: It’s quite disingenuous to imply that this doesn’t have real-world implications. Formal state recognition opens the door to a whole raft of sanctions and other actions to potentially be taken against Israel in future. So we can park that argument. But in terms of the war in Gaza, neither side now has any incentive to cease fire. Hamas is getting exactly what it wants on the international stage, so has every reason to keep fighting. And Israel, of course, is now backed into a corner, so I expect it to continue prosecuting the war in Gaza.

Anyone outside Washington now has almost no leverage with Jerusalem, so anything we do is not going to deter the Israelis for as long as the White House holds firm for Netanyahu. I would expect to see, if not firm moves for more annexation, certainly moves in that direction, as Israel will do everything it can to make sure that a Palestinian state doesn’t appear on anyone’s terms without Israel’s agreement.

Myers: And what would this state look like?

Fox: Legally, it doesn’t meet any of the criteria needed by the non-binding international treaty that gives a description of what a state should be. The Foreign Office has updated its travel map to show, essentially, the 1967 borders, which is just wishful thinking due to the amount of Israeli settlement within the West Bank area. Quite curiously, the British map also puts every single sacred site of Judaism inside the Palestinian area and not the Israeli area. So straight away, the UK is playing fantasy politics. The days of us drawing lines on maps in the Middle East are long gone, and I think it’s incredibly colonialist – not to mention presumptuous – for Labour to think that it can dictate this to Israel and not have any comebacks. It’s also distressing to think about what this means for Britain, to be betraying an ally in this way. Surely this can’t be good for us in the long term.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/22/keir-starmer-has-emboldened-the-enemies-of-humanity/

If you want a state, kill some Jews. That’s the sick message Sir Keir Starmer has just broadcast to the world. He says his recognition of a State of Palestine while Hamas continues to hold half-starved Jews in its dank tunnels and still dreams of annihilating the Jewish State is not a ‘reward for terror’. He isn’t fooling anyone, possibly not even himself. Somewhere in the recesses of what remains of his moral sensibility, even he must know that bestowing legitimacy on a ‘state’ part-ruled by a neo-fascist militia is an act of lethal cowardice that benefits no one but the neo-fascists.

Starmer made his Palestine statement in true neo-imperial style. In a glossy video message, he said his act of recognition is an attempt to counter the ‘growing horrors’ in Gaza and to ‘keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution’. The Foreign Office has already updated its maps of Israel and the Palestinian Territories to reflect the PM’s decree that a State of Palestine should exist. Do these people think it’s still the 1920s and puffed-up ministers in London’s opulent offices of state have the ‘right’ to redraw the map of the Middle East as they see fit?

The most maddening part of Starmer’s Palestine posturing is his claim that this is about ‘keeping alive’ the hope of peace. That was also said by the other states that recognised Palestine yesterday: Australia, Canada and Portugal. Their imperious arrogance is outdone only by their geopolitical obliviousness. The idea that it assists peace to give an army of anti-Semites what it wants less than two years after it slaughtered more Jews in one day than anyone else since the Nazis is preposterous. In truth, it emboldens the enemies of humanity, the neo-medieval murderers of Hamas and their allies in the regressive Islamist project, by telling them that butchery works. Mass murder brings benefits. Rape a Jew, get a nation.

Starmer criticised Hamas, calling it a ‘brutal terror organisation’. He said it can play ‘no role’ in this State of Palestine the aloof leaders of the West think they can magick up with grand talk. He can have as many pops at Hamas as he likes. It will do nothing to alter the galling truth that, objectively, in a truly material sense, he has handed a victory to this genocidal terror outfit founded with the express intention of destroying the Jewish nation. During a time of unforgiving war between the Jewish State and a militia of Jew-killers, he has taken action that directly boosts the moral fortunes of the latter. Shameful doesn’t cover it.

Hamas itself recognises this. ‘Hamas claims victory after Starmer hands out a “prize for terrorism”’, says the front page of today’s Daily Mail. This follows Hamas’s gloating over Starmer’s ‘prize’. Starmer’s statement is ‘a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause’, the terrorists said. And it will ‘send a clear message’ to Israel, they crowed. Hamas refers to Western leaders’ recognition of a State of Palestine as ‘one of the fruits of 7 October’. This will be your legacy, Sir Keir: you gifted ‘fruit’ to the mass killers of Jews. You pleased the men who beat Shani Louk to death by assenting to one of their aims. You brought a smile to the faces of fascists.

It’s this simple: if you take action that isolates the Jewish State and delights its murderous foes, then you have forfeited your right to be considered a serious leader or even a moral person. This isn’t about whether we think there should be a Palestinian state in the future. It’s not about whether people think the two-state solution is still a goer or is dead in the water courtesy of Hamas’s fascistic pogrom. That debate will continue. No, it’s about the fact that, right now, a bloody war is raging between the Jewish nation and the Jews’ enemies, and what our leaders do and say in that moment really matters. It impacts on the battlefield over there and on the political future here.