IT is indeed non-binding, but the French parliament’s resolution asking the government to recognise Palestine as a state is another reminder to Israel that even the Western world is increasingly coming round to what the UN and many international treaties have accepted in principle — a two-state-solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Tuesday’s French vote with an overwhelming majority — 339-151 — comes in the wake of similar developments that have served to boost the Palestinian position and highlight Israel’s greater isolation from world opinion.

Also read: French MPs vote in favour of recognising Palestine

In October, the British parliament and the Swedish government upheld the Palestinian people’s right to a state of their own on their soil, and last month, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, reaffirmed Europe’s position that the Palestinians have a right to their own state and went a step ahead by declaring that Jerusalem be the joint capital.

Contrast this with the balderdash by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Arabs should be bribed into leaving the Jewish state. While his remarks were about Israel’s Arab nationals, Mr Lieberman’s tirade gives an inkling of the Zionist psyche.

As time passes, two contradictory trends have sharpened — greater worldwide support for the Palestinian cause and stepped-up Israeli efforts to gobble up the West Bank by increasing the pace of settlement activity.

While no Israeli prime minister was ever really serious about honouring Israeli commitments and withdrawing from the West Bank, Israel’s policies have hardened under the Likud government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

At a news conference on July 11, while his troops were slaughtering Palestinian civilians, the Israeli prime minister said he would never countenance a sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank.

He also tried to sideline the Palestinian issue by asking the world to focus on terrorism. There is no doubt terrorism is a threat which all world governments take seriously with many adopting countermeasures. But Israel has used terrorism as a propaganda tool to delegitimise the Palestinian people’s struggle by equating it with terrorism — a view which global opinion apparently does not share.

Mr Netanyahu also wants the world, and the Palestinians, to recognise Israel as a Jewish state — something which any rational mind would find hard to accept. The writing on the wall is there for Israel and its ally America to see — no less than 134 states have recognised the Palestinian state. It is time Washington and Tel Aviv too did the same.

Published in Dawn December 4th , 2014