European leaders plan to use Rosh Hashanah to show their disdain of the Jewish state. Are they doing it to shore up political support at home? President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, et al. might believe that the “Free Palestine” crowds in their streets reflect wide public support for a new Arab country. If so, why do polls show that by large margins the French and Brits are cool to creating a Palestinian state that America and Israel oppose?

A poll conducted this week by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, known as CRIF, found that of the French people 71 percent oppose immediate recognition of a Palestinian state before the release of hostages and the surrender of Hamas, and only 29 percent support recognizing a Palestinian state now. In Britain, 87 percent oppose Mr. Starmer’s unconditional recognition of such a state, according to a Telegraph poll. 

Yet today Sir Keir, alongside former British colonies’ peers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Mark Carney of Canada, announced their recognition a Palestinian state. They did so ahead of tomorrow’s conference at the United Nations, led by Mr. Macron, to promote a two-state “solution.” Many countries are expected to follow Messrs. Macron and Starmer, though America and Israel oppose it. Lord Balfour would have been ashamed of his county.

“The British mandate on Israel ended 77 years ago,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s predecessor, Naftali Bennett, tells Sky News, adding that Sir Keir is “doing it for political reasons.” A leading candidate to run against Mr. Netanyahu in next year’s election, Mr. Bennett says that in Israel, “no one accepts this British stance of telling us ‘these are our conditions, you surrender or else we recognize the Palestinian state.’” 

In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, massacres “talking about a Palestinian state is truly something that is destructive to Israel,” is how the leader of the Democrats, Israel’s leftmost Jewish party, Yair Golan, reacted to Mr. Starmer. At best, Israelis consider tomorrow’s UN declaration a pie in the Manhattan sky. Voters in Europe and beyond might know better than their leaders that until Israel agrees no Palestinian state can be established. 

Polling can always be iffy, but large numbers seem to scoff at the French-led UN grandstanding. Why? Mr. Macron tells an Israeli television interviewer that recognizing a Palestinian state is “the best way to isolate Hamas.” Sir Keir similarly contends that statehood is the “exact opposite” of Hamas’s vision. No wonder then that only a minority of fact-challenged and angry protesters in European city streets and America’s campuses take them seriously.

Yet, the leaders of Europe’s former great powers prefer vocal Hamas supporters to silent majorities. No doubt Britain and France dream of reviving past colonial glory. And that Messrs. Starmer and Macron believe they can divert attention from the dismal economies they steer, or their sagging support numbers. Sir Keir said today that most Britons would like to see two states in what was British-mandated Palestine. Polls show otherwise.