President Macron will recognize the state of Palestine, but not quite yet. The haughty Frenchman is hoping to reverse his fast diminishing political fortunes by appealing to growing anti-Israel sentiments among voters in France and the rest of the continent. He promises “peace” will come soon. Talk about barking up the wrong tree. Either way, if creating “Palestine” out of a whole cloth is so urgent, why wait until September?

“The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population,” Mr. Macron writes on X. But no worries, as “I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine. I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next September.” In a letter to the Palestinian Authority’ president, Mahmoud Abbas, he wrote “of my determination to move forward.”

Forward? The idea of a Palestinian state living side by side next to Israel has been bandied around forever with little sign of success. It gained steam during the Clinton presidency, when Mr. Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, rejected any Israeli or American offer. The world body has all but recognized “Palestine,” even as, since the 1990s, every American president has vetoed granting full UN membership to the not-quite-state.

Mr. Macron’s most recent push for a state came earlier this year, as he and the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, arranged a June meeting at the UN to promote statehood for Palestine. The conference was postponed when Israel and America struck Iran’s nuclear facilities, and is now scheduled for next Monday. Mr. Macron, though, will not attend. His latest “statehood” outburst might have been designed to compensate for his no-show. 

Against all evidence, Mr. Macron believes that recognizing a Palestinian state will end the Gaza war and “will achieve peace” in the Mideast. Yet at 89 Mr. Abbas is far from a “forward” thinking leader. His corrupt and unpopular regime is far more ready for statehood at the UN than anywhere in the Mideast. The Palestinian Authority is hated, while its rival’s, meaning Hamas’, popularity is rising. Might as well call it Hamastan.     

“Recognition of a Palestinian state after the October 7 massacre is not diplomacy but a moral collapse,” a former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, writes on X. It’s “a reward for mass murder and a message to Islamic terrorist organizations: Kill Jews and you will get a state. This shameful decision will be thrown into the dustbin of history.” That wastebasket has indeed been so full of two-state “solutions” that few Arabs or Israelis still support it. 

Hamas, meanwhile, is enjoying the fruits of its strategy. The terror organization is feasting on Gaza hunger, most of which is of the terrorist group’s own creation. As world leaders and the UN condemn Israel for pictures of Gaza famine, Hamas is amassing new demands for cease-fire and hostage release. As an Israel Defense Force intelligence veteran, Yossi Kuperwasser, tells our Benny Avni, “everyone knows what’s going on, and they all play along.” 

Hamas is relying on its propaganda machine to lead newspapers. World leaders then condemn Israel, so Hamas toughens its conditions in negotiations. “There’s enough food in Hamas’s warehouses to feed everybody in Gaza, but when everybody shows pictures of staved children, Hamas will raise new demands,” Mr. Kuperwasser says. Now Hamas wants its hostage-takers in Israeli prisons freed. In return it promises to — wait for it — free hostages.

Back in 2005 Israel uprooted Jewish communities it had built in Gaza and withdrew all its troops from the Strip. The idea was to conduct democratic elections that would lead to statehood. Hamas won, killed its Arab rivals, and launched attacks against Israel. Mr. Macron’s envisioned “Palestine” would likely follow the same pattern. The dream of turning the West Bank into the Left Bank might appeal to some Parisians, but few others.