Much of politics today is threatening, cajoling, and then doing nothing.
When Emmanuel Macron isn’t busy being slapped around by his wife/teacher/legal guardian or watching Paris go up in Les Flames, he is hectoring Israel about its war in Gaza and the need for a Palestinian state. It would seem strange that a battered president with a major immigrant problem would spend his time worrying about Israel and its actions, but Macron realizes that France’s future is Islamic. He is making all of the right noises about Israel fighting too hard in Gaza and that the Palestinians deserve—whatever that means—their own state. I want to buy Mike Huckabee a beer, as he suggested that Macron give the Palestinians a piece of the French Riviera. Now, that’s diplomacy.
We live in the age of the empty gesture. Macron can go to his Saudi summit and declare his recognition of a Palestinian state, where the men slap the women and not the other way around. Spain and Ireland declared their recognition of “Palestine” a while back, and did anything change? When the Spanish ambassador to their fantasy state tried to live in Israel, where things actually work, the Foreign Ministry ordered him to move to Ramallah. Today's diplomacy consists of communiques, statements, demands, threats, and consultations. John Kerry was the king of running to the UN or making empty threats against Vladimir Putin. Putin, Xi, and the mullahs do not offer many statements; rather, they quietly do whatever they want. Donald Trump is different from many of his predecessors and contemporaries in that he is a man of action. He may give a warning, but if he says he is going to do something, he does it. Ditto for his secretaries and associates like Kennedy, Hegseth, Gabbard, and Homan. If Tom Homan says that he will flood the zone, you can bet your bottom dollar that he will.
So why have we gone so many years with meaningless gestures and endless, useless statements? It all goes back to what one Soviet employee once said: “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” That is the system built since the 1980s, where diplomacy is simply play-acting. People were shocked by Ronald Reagan bombing Libya and Trump turning General Soleimani into a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Remember when John Kerry promised that if the Obama administration were to respond in Syria (after Assad blew past Obama’s “red lines”), it would be a little pinprick of an attack? This is how things have been done: talk big and do nothing.
It is not unreasonable to describe Gaza as a Palestinian state. I remember seeing the IDF soldiers locking the fence after the last Jew had been removed from his home in the Gush Katif settlement. From that moment on, that land was all Palestinian, all of the time. Within a week, the locals had destroyed the greenhouses that had generated tens of millions of dollars from sales of bug-free, organic greens to Europe. Within a year, they had elected Hamas. And 20 years after they had first taken over the joint, they attacked Israel and watched all of their buildings return to dust. The Palestinians could have made peace with Israel. They could have used their Israel-independent border with Egypt to grow economic ties with their neighbor to the south. They did none of this; rather, they took billions from Iran and Qatar (who are the same, plus or minus 900 pounds of 60% enriched uranium) to build tunnels and prepare for the mass slaughter of Jews. Would a bigger Palestinian state be any different? Even 200 a 200-year-old Mahmud Abbas refuses to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” and his Palestinian Authority was none too unhappy about the murder and torture of Jews by Hamas.
Steve Witkoff had his latest ceasefire proposal rejected by Hamas. Rather than be a man and say that he is finished negotiating until Hamas gets serious, he all but begs Hamas to reconsider its rejection. Hamas wants all of Israel’s forces out; Israel cannot leave certain parts of Gaza ever unless it wants a repeat of the October 7th massacre. There is nothing to discuss with Hamas. Donald Trump should recall his man and tell him to build some golf courses for a while until the conditions for a real deal are in place.
On university campuses and in the streets of Western countries, performative fools pretend to show their concern for Gaza while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Sure, the Hamas terrorists showed their captives pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, but has all of the screaming, Jew-threatening, building destruction helped one Gazan? Of course not. But it has undermined Western societies as they have been for hundreds of years. I always see large marches of “patriots” in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, England, and France. I feel sorry for these people. They really want their countries to function as they always have, but their governments and EU courts are against them. Even if they make political inroads, the powerful governments will sideline their leaders, like they have done in Romania and France. Even if they somehow take control, EU courts will not let them deport the millions of illegal aliens whose alien culture is destroying the local social fabric. Look at the Parisian riots after PSG won the UEFA soccer final; I told my kids that the riots would have been the same had they lost.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.” This is the way things used to be done. Today, we would say, “Keep talking and carry a small can of pepper spray.” The West does not want to act, so it has reduced diplomacy to threats, demands, and UN votes. Israel is tired of the antisemitic posturing of France’s Macaroni and has begun to shoot right back. Macron should work on saving his marriage and not the Palestinian people. The latter do not want a state; they simply don’t want the Jews to have one either. Let’s imagine that there was a Palestinian state—you don’t think that Egypt would gallop up to take Gaza and southern Israel. At the same time, Lebanon and Syria would make their way to Haifa and Tiberias, while King Abdullah would lead the charge to Jerusalem. These countries can’t stand the Palestinians, wouldn’t take them in when asked, and if given the chance, would take the land right out from underneath their feet.
Americans are fed up with politicians who promise big changes like those of DOGE and then do nothing when their interests are put at risk. Same too overseas. Enough of worthless negotiations with Gaza and Iran. It’s time for lights out for America’s adversaries. Israel is primed to crush both; I hope that Donald Trump soon gives them the green light.
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