In anticipation of the September UN General Assembly meeting, several Western powers — including France, Canada, and Australia — have announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state. The UK has signaled it will follow if certain conditions are met. With more countries likely to join, America must prepare to stand alone against what amounts to a capitulation to Hamas.

This latest move aimed at resolving the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is based on wishful thinking, as there is no Palestinian state to recognize. Gaza is still run by the terrorist organization Hamas, which continues to hold hostages in captivity and refuse good faith negotiation. Hamas does not seek the welfare of Gazans but the destruction of Israel. As countries with new plans to recognize a Palestinian state, as these circumstances remain unchanged, their recognition will merely legitimize and reward terror. They will certainly not succeed in their stated purpose of ameliorating Gaza’s humanitarian problems.

Since being voted into power nearly two decades ago, Hamas has not sought to improve Gaza but to use it as a launch pad for attacking the Jewish state. Hamas has stolen foreign aid and repurposed it for terror, placed military targets in residential areas, and used civilians as human shields.

The human cost of this is immense. Perhaps most notably, a US intelligence assessment concluded with confidence that Palestinian militant groups used the Shifa hospital complex, Gaza’s largest hospital, to house command infrastructure and hold hostages. US intelligence also suggests Hamas has used other hospitals for similar purposes, and these war crimes are not limited to hospitals. Israeli intelligence confidently pinpointed 20 to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters to a Gaza-based UN school last year. This has forced Israel to strike at such targets, enabling Hamas to twist the story as propaganda, despite Israel’s focus on using precision weapons. And today, there is nothing to suggest Hamas intends to cease its brutality or change the way it rules over the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 700 days since its terror attack on Israel, Hamas continues to hold 50 hostages in captivity, many of them presumed murdered. Earlier this month, Hamas proudly released footage of Evyatar David, 24, still in captivity, visibly starving, with his ribs and shoulder blades pressing against his skin. Accompanying this footage were images of emaciated children. At any time, it could release the remaining hostages and surrender, and the war would end. And yet, it refuses to do so.

Its refusal should come as no surprise. Infamously, in the weeks following the October 7th attack, a Hamas official swore to, “teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times. [October 7th] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth…” And with a growing number of Western powers announcing plans to recognize it, the terrorist organization is only gaining new cover and leverage.

The United Kingdom, which followed France in announcing its plans to recognize a Palestinian state, made its pledge conditional on Israel agreeing to a ceasefire before the September UN meeting. With this, why would Hamas make any serious concessions before then? This pledge incentivizes a refusal to release the hostages and certainly a refusal to surrender, running out the clock on an arbitrary deadline. And already, shortly after these announcements, Hamas told mediators it will pause ceasefire talks. Those joining this growing list are not only prolonging the war and captivity of the hostages but also incentivizing their continuance.

Further, recognition would be rewarding Hamas with more legitimacy after its October 7th atrocities, and as a result of launching this war, than it had before the attack. Israel has every right to defend itself, eliminate its enemy’s ability to threaten its people, and free the hostages. Attempting to pressure Israel into a premature ceasefire with a pile-on, before these objectives are achieved, is a moral failure. Is this the signal Western nations want to send to those seeking the destruction of civilization as we know it?

The United States should lead, not follow, and resist pressure to conform to this policy of appeasement. France’s decision seems to have resulted in a domino effect, and it should never reach our shores.

So far, America is resisting it successfully, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio decisively rejecting plans to recognize a Palestinian state under current conditions, posting on X:

“The United States strongly rejects @EmmanuelMacron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the @UN general assembly … This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

This response reflects a moral clarity increasingly rare in the world today, and the US should accept nothing short of Hamas’s surrender and the release of the hostages.

For decades, most of the world has expected Israel not to end the threat posed by its enemies, but to tolerate and maintain the status quo, a path they would be unlikely to take themselves if in a similar predicament. October 7th made it clearer than ever just how unsustainable this policy was, and the Jewish state should not have to move backward, having every right to secure its sovereignty.

If a better life for Gazans and peace is to be achieved, it will not be done so by throwing Hamas a lifeline. For decades, its primary objective has been Israel’s annihilation, and it continues to be so. A just, moral peace will only come from Hamas’s surrender and the release of the hostages.

America must resist pressure to join the growing list of countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state. Doing so breathes new legitimacy into Hamas, rewards terrorism, and will fail to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza long-term. On moral clarity, America has stood alone before, certainly regarding Israel, and it should be prepared to do so again.