Many European states, lead by France and the United Kingdom, are currently speaking out in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state without making any specific requests of Hamas or the Palestinian authorities and without mentioning the hostages. Furthermore, they present a long list of things they expect Israel to do. Meanwhile, the Arab states recently met and, in an official document, requested that Hamas hand over its arms to the Palestinian authorities and a combined international group of observers, as well as demanding Hamas free all the hostages. It's become a topsy-turvy world.
Hamas poses a threat to any state.
The Arab states are obviously supportive of the Palestinians. But they know that terrorists will never build a functioning state or ensure that no one starves. They know that Hamas poses a threat to any state—not only to Israel, but to the Arab states too. They know that a two-state agreement can only be achieved between two functioning, rational, governments, not by fantasizing about a world that is never likely to exist.
The European states should to listen to Arab leaders and join them in solidarity, making the same demands on Hamas: their self-disarmament and the release of the hostages as conditions on the Palestinian side of any treaty or state recognition. There also needs to be a clearer understanding of what is happening concerning the humanitarian issues from the Palestinian side. Political influence needs to be balanced.
It is understandable to pressure Israel to feed the people in Gaza.
While it is understandable to pressure Israel to feed the people in Gaza it should not be done without also demanding that Hamas not steal relief supplies for themselves or sell supplies to people (for whom the food was given freely) in order to buy weapons to perpetuate the conflict.
This is happening right now. The German army (with the help of Jordan) is dropping food and other relief supplies by air, only to discover from confirmed evidence on the ground that 50-100% of them end up in the hands of Hamas and are not used to feed starving people.
Hamas does not have the ability to make this dream a reality.
Why is it that European states such as France, together with the United Kingdom, do not respect the perspective of Arab states enough to follow their lead, and work to understand why Arab state leaders consistently refuse to work with terrorists driven by unrealistic ideologies? Despite being in favor of a Palestinian state, why do European states not recognize that Hamas does not have the ability to make this dream a reality?
For the sake of the Palestinian people, let's not turn a blind eye to injustice on the side of a conflict we prefer to support. There is a great deal of justice required in the midst of this conflict, but it needs to start by listening to those who are closer to the situation, the neighbors who know the historo-cultural context far better than any other far-flung political power.
We can pray.
Finally, we can help. We can pray that the greatest influence of all for peace, the lasting hope for this part of the world, will intervene in powerfully miraculous ways—"Jesus, indigenous to these lands and Lord of all, show your mercy and pour out your loving favor on Palestine and Israel. Amen."
Archbishop and Professor Thomas Paul Schirrmacher is President of the International Council of the International Society for Human Rights (Frankfurt), President of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (Costa Rica, Vancouver, Bonn), Co-President of Religions for Peace (New York) and President of the Bonn Abrahamic Center for Global Peace, Justice and Sustainability (BAC). Schirrmacher was Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance 2021–2024. Prior to that he served WEA as Associate Secretary General for Theological Concerns and Intrafaith and Interfaith Relations.
