EDITORIAL: Rewarding terrorists makes no one safer

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Prime Minister Mark Carney, along with the leaders of many other countries, has condemned Israel’s intention to militarily occupy Gaza City, saying it will further endanger Palestinians and Israeli hostages.

The problem with that, in our view, is that recognizing a Palestinian state – as Canada and these other countries intend to do at the United Nations next month – will do exactly the same thing, by rewarding terrorism.

A recent interview with senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad by Al Jazeera television, translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), proves the point.

Hamad said Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 has led directly to international support for a Palestinian state and that it was not terrorism but resistance.

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In light of the fact Hamas’ ultimate goal is to rid Israel of its Jewish population, can Carney explain how recognizing an independent Palestinian state, which Hamas views as a victory resulting from its terrorism, is going to make Palestinians and Israeli hostages safer?

Given that Carney says Canada’s support for a Palestinian state is conditional on Hamas disarming, freeing the hostages and being banned from participating in the electoral process to create one, it’s hard to understand what our position is.

Is Carney saying Canada won’t support a Palestinian state next month at the UN, unless Hamas has already freed the hostages, disarmed and committed to not interfering in a Palestinian election next year administered by Hamas’ main rival – the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas?

Abbas – the man Carney and other world leaders are counting on to preside over the electoral process to create a Palestinian state – is an 89-year-old periodic Holocaust denier who then-Liberal foreign minister Chrystia Freeland condemned for antisemitism in 2018.

That was when Abbas blamed Jews for bringing the Holocaust on themselves by engaging in money lending, for which he apologized in the face of international condemnation, before repeating the argument in 2023.

Polls show he’s deeply unpopular with Palestinians, who consider the Palestinian Authority corrupt and want him to resign.

How any of this is going to make Palestinians and the hostages safer – particularly since neither Hamas nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu want a two-state solution – is increasingly difficult to understand.