The thing about having peace is first you have to have people who want it. If even a small but substantial portion of the population doesn't want peace, there won't be any. The only way to have peace at that point is for the small but substantial group to either fade away or be neutralized.
To give you some perspective on how a small group can truly bring chaos to an entire region, Black Lives Matter held 10,600 demonstrations between May 24 and August 22, 2020, of which 93 percent were actually peaceful. The other seven percent were not, and they killed well over a dozen people and cost between one to two billion dollars worth of damage.
That was a small percentage of people who decided to get violent during the protests, so what if around 40 percent of an entire state wanted to get violent?
We don't have to ask. We can see it happening now between Israel and Gaza.
According to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), a whopping 44 percent of Palestinians support the terrorist group Hamas, which was responsible for the atrocity that was the October 7 attack in Israel. According to the PCPSR, this is actually higher than usual because there was a surge in support for Hamas after the October 7 attack. In 2022, the PCPSR noted Hamas had 34 percent support from Palestinians.
Hamas is Hell-bent (literally, I'd say) on the destruction of Israel and its people. It's in its charter. It's also pretty clear that many of the Palestinian people are behind Hamas in this regard. Logically, giving a Palestinian state to the Palestinians with Hamas in control would be nothing short of a disaster that would get thousands of people killed and untold destruction.
Yet, European Union states seem to want to recognize a Palestinian State with or without Israel's input. According to Euronews, Spain, Ireland, and others seem to be ready to recognize the existence of a Palestinian State against all logic:
Three European states — Spain, Ireland and Norway — have announced they will formally recognise the Palestinian state, seven months after the Gaza war broke out.
The highly symbolic move was coordinated between the three nations on Wednesday, following months of negotiations between a group of European countries willing to take the step.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — who had vowed to recognise Palestine by June — announced Spain would recognise the State of Palestine next Tuesday, 28 May.
The idea is that by doing this, they'll somehow establish peace in the region.
"A lasting peace solution only has a chance when both parties at the negotiating table have the same status, and the peoples are recognized in their equal rights and freedoms," said Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister Vincent Van Peteghem in a post on X.
Israel isn't taking this lying down, nor should they.
"Today’s decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays," posted Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz. "After the Hamas terror organization carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing heinous sexual crimes witnessed by the world, these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran by recognizing a Palestinian state."
Two points to consider here.
Firstly, Katz is right. What did Hamas do to warrant the creation of a whole state but kill, rape, and kidnap innocent Israeli citizens? Is that what it takes to be recognized by the EU as a legitimate entity? What kind of message does that send to terrorist groups around the world? The more you kill, the more respect you'll get.
Or does this reward only come to those who kill Israelis?
I think we all know the answer to that.
Secondly, is that there can be no peace because Hamas, and a whopping amount of Palestinians, clearly don't want peace. They would utilize any status as a state for their favorite activity; trying to destroy the only Democracy in the Middle East.
Israel is right to keep pushing until Hamas has been completely destroyed. Not that it would eliminate the problem of Middle Eastern countries wanting them wiped off the map, but at least it would be one less piece on the board to worry about.
At this point, any talk of a two-state solution is nothing more than a virtue signal from countries that don't have to live next door to their mortal enemy and chest-thumping from politicians who want to make it seem like they're working toward "peace."
If they truly want peace, they'll help Israel destroy Hamas and set up political barriers from terrorist groups like it operating openly in the Middle East, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.
