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<\/a>What Voltaire Would Say About Recognizing a Palestinian State Today<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\nPini Dunner<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The 18th century produced countless geniuses who changed how we think in so many ways. Not least among them was Fran\u00e7ois-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire. Like countless other savants in that era, he excelled at multiple disciplines \u2013 including history, philosophy, politics, and literature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But most of all, Voltaire is remembered for his sharp wit. One of his most famous quips was about the Holy Roman Empire, the loose confederation of principalities and dukedoms in what later became Germany. \u201cThis agglomeration which calls itself the Holy Roman Empire,\u201d he said, \u201cis in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Voltaire had little patience for pomposity and pretension, and his description of the Holy Roman Empire \u2014 a sprawling, lumbering political entity that dominated Central Europe for centuries \u2014 cut straight to the bone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t holy \u2014 it was made up of competing Christian denominations, and the Church had long since lost control over its many local rulers. It wasn\u2019t Roman \u2014 the connection to ancient Rome was tenuous at best, a grandiose title masking the reality of a Germanic confederation. And it certainly wasn\u2019t an empire \u2014 it was a disorganized patchwork of feuding duchies and city-states that barely hung together under a distant elected emperor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which is why Voltaire\u2019s line is so memorable: it captured, in one withering sentence, the absurdity of dressing up a dysfunctional, fragmented mess as something it plainly was not.<\/span><\/p>\n Which brings us to the present day, and the latest diplomatic fad sweeping Western capitals: recognition of a Palestinian state. In the past few weeks alone, Britain, France, Australia, and Canada have all rushed to declare that \u201cPalestine\u201d should now be treated as if it is a real, functioning country.<\/span><\/p>\n But here\u2019s the problem: it isn\u2019t. As Voltaire might have said, there is no state \u2014 and frankly, there is no Palestine. According to the 1933 Montevideo Convention, a state must have four things: defined borders, a functioning government, a coherent judiciary and military, and a permanent population. Palestine has none of them. What it does have is a fractured leadership divided between a corrupt, un-elected Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and a genocidal terror regime in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n And yet, astonishingly, rather than confronting the nightmare reality that Palestinian national aspirations are being driven by an absolutist bunch of thugs \u2014 a murderous death cult that unleashed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust \u2014 world leaders have chosen to reward them by indulging in the fantasy of Palestinian statehood. And make no mistake: when the Palestinians say \u201cPalestine,\u201d they mean all of Israel, not just Gaza and the West Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n Incredibly, October 7th has become a kind of twisted diplomatic success for Hamas and its international cheerleaders. A bloody terrorist rampage has been transformed into a Willy Wonka golden ticket at the United Nations, while foolish Western governments cower in the face of Islamic minorities and progressive loudmouths in their own countries. It is the international equivalent of applauding an arsonist by handing him the keys to the fire station \u2014 and then wondering why the fires keep spreading.<\/span><\/p>\n History offers us plenty of examples of phantom \u201cstates\u201d that were recognized \u2014 or kind of recognized \u2014 despite having none of the attributes of genuine statehood. Take Biafra, for instance. In 1967, the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria declared independence. For three brutal years, Biafra functioned as a shadow state, fighting a bloody war with Nigeria that left millions dead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A handful of countries recognized Biafra, but most of the world did not. And even those who toyed with the idea of recognition knew, deep down \u2014 or maybe not so deep down \u2014 that Biafra was never going to be a viable state. When it collapsed in 1970, the recognition evaporated as if it had never been offered.<\/span><\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Transnistria \u2014 a sliver of land wedged between Moldova and Ukraine, which declared independence in 1990. It\u2019s thirty five years later, and Transnistria still parades itself as a state: it has its own flag, an army, border controls, postage stamps, and even its own currency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, on paper, it looks far more like a real state than \u201cPalestine\u201d ever has. And yet \u2014 crucially \u2014 no one recognizes it. Because the world understands that Transnistria is just a Russian-backed invention, a geopolitical puppet masquerading as a country.<\/span><\/p>\n Which brings us back to \u201cPalestine.\u201d Like Biafra, it has no prospect of surviving the test of time. Like Transnistria, it is just a figment of its own fantasy and the political considerations of others. It\u2019s totally absurd for such an entity to be recognized as a state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If anything, by the usual standards of statehood, Disneyland has a stronger claim to sovereignty than Palestine. It has borders, border checks, its own security personnel, and a coherent government in the form of the Disney corporation. If the world is in the business of recognizing make-believe kingdoms, at least Disneyland delivers joy and entertainment \u2014 instead of terror tunnels and mayhem.<\/span><\/p>\n Parshat Re\u2019eh<\/a>\u00a0contains a sobering warning that echoes down to our own time. Moses tells the Jewish people (Deut. 13:2<\/a>): \u201cIf a prophet or a dreamer arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign comes to pass, but then he says, \u2018Let us go after other gods,\u2019 you must not listen to him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Torah\u2019s message is chillingly clear: appearances can deceive. Someone might come along and dazzle us with something that seems legitimate. But in the final analysis, legitimacy is not determined by wishful thinking. What matters is fidelity to truth.<\/span><\/p>\n The classical commentaries drive this point home. The Ramban notes that the Torah presents us with a scenario in which the false prophet\u2019s \u201cwonder\u201d actually happens. He predicted it, and it came to pass. And yet, the acid test is not that it happened, but whether the prophet\u2019s message aligns with eternal truth. If it does not, the wonder is not a wonder, it is a distraction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rabbi Obadiah Sforno sharpens this even further: the false prophet\u2019s \u201cachievement\u201d dazzles the crowd in the moment, but it has no enduring substance. The appearance of success collapses the instant you measure it against what is real and lasting.<\/span><\/p>\n Malbim adds a more unsettling twist. He explains that such deceptions are not accidents, but a Divine test: will people cling to principle when they are confronted with a fake wonder, or will they be seduced by its allure?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s an uncomfortable question. Will the spectacle of international recognition \u2013 the pageantry of parliaments, diplomats, and foreign ministers standing before TV cameras declaring their recognition of \u201cPalestine\u201d \u2013 really deliver? It sure looks like progress. But in reality, it is a lie \u2014 a false prophecy that leads people astray, away from moral clarity and toward disaster.<\/span><\/p>\n Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch constantly taught that the Torah is our safeguard against the fashions of the age, when hollow trends dress themselves up as timeless morality.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly the point. The false prophet doesn\u2019t look like a villain. On the contrary, he speaks the language of hope and righteousness. But he is a villain, spreading poison and destruction. So it is with \u201cPalestinian statehood,\u201d which is presented as a historical justice, but in reality is the epitome of terror, corruption, and wanton bloodshed.<\/span><\/p>\n By endorsing something that does not exist, the West is in effect falling into the trap of a false prophecy. Seduced by the theatrics of recognition, they are ignoring the truth that what they are doing strengthens terror and undermines their own credibility. They have mistaken illusion for substance \u2014 and that, says the Torah, is the very definition of a false prophet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Voltaire himself put it, \u201cIllusion is the first of all pleasures.\u201d It\u2019s time for the West to open their eyes and wake up from their dream.<\/span><\/p>\n The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em> . What Voltaire Would Say About Recognizing a Palestinian State Today Pini Dunner Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan holds a picture of Hamas\u2019 leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, as he addresses delegates during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, US, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS\/Eduardo Munoz The 18th century […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[33,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123679"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123696,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123679\/revisions\/123696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan holds a picture of Hamas\u2019 leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, as he addresses delegates during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, US, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS\/Eduardo Munoz<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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