Welcome to the State of Denial. You've arrived in an alternative reality where terrorists have become heroes valiantly battling oppressors, genocidal slogans are triumphant calls for freedom, and the natural response to a terror group that slaughtered 1,200 people and took another 250 hostages is to offer them a state.
Earlier this month, a majority of U.N. members passed a resolution granting new "rights and privileges" to Palestine. That more than 100 hostages are still languishing in Hamas's torture tunnels didn't deter those states that voted in favor.
The upgraded Palestinian status sent a clear message that there is no need for Hamas to negotiate the release of the hostages—they can advance statehood while still holding onto the men, women, and children they abducted on Oct. 7.
Spain, Norway, and Ireland then went one step further and announced plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state. That decision came even though two of those nations had seen their citizens murdered or kidnapped by Hamas.
Spanish-born Iván Illarramendi and his wife were murdered in their Kibbutz Kissufim home. It took weeks for a forensic team to sift through the ashes to discover their remains and conclude they'd been killed.
Then there was 9-year-old Emily Hand, an Irish Israeli citizen, who made worldwide headlines after she was abducted and taken to Gaza. When she was finally freed in November, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar posted on social media, "an innocent child who was lost has now been found."
She was lost! It was all a big misunderstanding.
In the State of Denial—a state that increasing numbers of European leaders call home—every atrocity, murder, torture, rape, and abduction can be placed in "context" as "resistance" against an "oppressor" in the name of "justice." That these atrocities could have horrifying downstream implications when they are perpetrated in Western nations is a problem for another day.
In the State of Denial, you don't trouble yourself with pesky questions like who would lead a newly founded State of Palestine?
There are currently two contenders. There's Hamas, an internationally designated terror organization that throws political opponents off roofs, hides military compounds under UN facilities, and has a Charter that pledges to destroy Israel and hunt down every Jew.
Or there's the Palestinian Authority, which a staggering 87 percent of Palestinians believe is corrupt and which hasn't held an election in the West Bank in nearly 20 years. If they were to hold an election, Hamas would probably win, as evidenced by the fact that West Bank Palestinians overwhelmingly supported the Oct. 7 attacks.
Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority have permitted the Palestinian people free speech, a free press, or individual liberties. When people in the State of Denial march through the streets screaming "Free Palestine," it seems they will settle for a Palestine free of Jews.
The European nations rallying to proclaim a State of Palestine don't worry themselves about the peaceful character, stability, viability, or democratic aspirations of a new state.
Nor do they seem bothered that the number one export of that new state would be terrorism. For Palestinian leaders, it's proven to be a lucrative venture. They frequently claim to be running out of money and can't afford to maintain essential government services, but they keep expanding the "Pay to Slay" program that financially rewards terrorists and their families.
In the State of Denial, one needn't be concerned that a future State of Palestine would become yet another forward-operating base for Iran.
The Iranian regime has already destabilized Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. But that didn't stop the UN from lowering its flag and observing a minute of silence following the passing of its President Ebrahim Raisi, who earned the moniker "Butcher of Tehran" for overseeing mass executions of political prisoners and then went on to crush the "women, life, freedom" protests.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proclaims that "death to America" is not just a slogan, it's a policy, but so what? "Live dangerously!" is the official motto of the State of Denial!
One doesn't sweat the small stuff in the State of Denial. You go with the flow, even if that means regurgitating Gaza casualty figures produced by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. Even when they turn out to be wrong and are revised to show 40 percent to 50 percent fewer deaths among women and children, never recant. Double down!
The UN blamed the bad numbers on the "fog of the war." Who would have suspected that mass murderers, mass abductors, mass torturers, and mass rapists would provide unreliable data?
But that's just life in the State of Denial, where terror is excused, hostages are abandoned, and inconvenient truths are dismissed. What could possibly go wrong?
Aviva Klompas is the former director of speechwriting at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations and co-founder of Boundless Israel, a nonprofit organization that partners with community leaders in the U.S. to support Israel education and combat hatred of Jews.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
