European and Canadian ‘Statesmen’ Prepare to Reward Hamas for the Oct. 7 Attacks | The American Spectator

What passes for “world opinion” these days is about to reward Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups for their savage attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. After condemning those attacks soon after they occurred, European and Canadian “statesmen” (I use the term loosely) now see fit to advocate recognition of a Palestinian state because Israel has had the temerity to strike back against its attackers in an effort to prevent its enemies from continuing to wage war against the Jewish state. The leaders of France, Britain, and Canada claim they are responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza for which they blame Israel, but perhaps it also has something to do with the growing Islamic populations in each of those countries. Demography, it seems, is destiny for feckless politicians like Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, and Mark Carney.

Canada’s Islamic population has more than doubled as a proportion of the country’s population since 2001. France has the largest Islamic population in Europe. And in the U.K., the Islamic population has increased by more than 44 percent in the last decade. These demographic trends have political, national security, and cultural effects. To believe that these trends have no impact on the decisions of politicians is naïve. 

Of course, the political leaders of France, the U.K., and Canada are also responding to the one-sided media coverage of the war in Gaza. The international media — including the U.S. media — treats Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like they treat President Trump. Anti-Israel bias among the media is blatant and unfair. But Netanyahu, like Trump, will not be swayed by a hostile media or, for that matter, hostile “world opinion.” 

Although President Trump acknowledged that there is “real starvation” in Gaza, he has not joined in the chorus of “world opinion” that seeks to reward the horrific brutality of Oct. 7 by recognizing a Palestinian state. Trump said that recognizing a Palestinian state would reward Hamas, and “I don’t think they should be rewarded.” And U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee made it clear that “there is no break between” Netanyahu and Trump. 

Hamas — the Palestinian-elected leadership in Gaza — started this war, and it and the population that put it in power is now reaping the whirlwind. The tragedy of war is no different here than it was when the residents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were massacred by American bombers during World War II. Then, Germany and Japan, like Gaza today, reaped what they sowed. And Hamas has had a deliberate strategy of hiding behind and among civilians as a way to wage war. So, the decisions of Canada, France, and the U.K. to recognize a Palestinian state would not only reward Hamas for the actions of Oct. 7, it would also reward Hamas for placing its civilians in Gaza at risk in order to gain sympathy for their plight. 

Here at home, while Trump and most Republicans continue to back Israel, many Democrats in Congress have repeatedly condemned Netanyahu for the war in Gaza, and voted to withhold the sale of weapons to Israel. The New York Times reports that due to Democrat defections, “the longtime bipartisan consensus in support of Israel is, at least for the moment, in tatters.” 

The timid and irresolute leaders of Canada, France, and the UK, and their Democratic Party counterparts in the U.S. — afraid of their own shadows and, perhaps, of their Muslim populations — are a stark contrast to Israel’s Netanyahu, who is prepared to do whatever it takes to avoid another Holocaust, and to President Trump, who refuses to reward Hamas for a war that it started. 

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