Lies and Empty Promises: How Abbas fooled the West into Recognition of a Palestinian State Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is an edited version version of a transcript created using AI technology and may not reflect 100% accuracy.

The video can be found here.

Host: Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our YouTube channel. Earlier today, we sat down to have a discussion with Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch about the upcoming recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western countries at the United Nations General Assembly, which will be taking place later this month in New York. Itamar shared a presentation with us on the communications between Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and several Western leaders, namely Emmanuel Macron of France, and what he thinks will be the ramifications of such recognition, and what has actually led these countries to pursue such a course of action. Unfortunately, just a few minutes after we had started our conversation, sirens sounded all across Israel, including in Itamar’s home in Efrat, and he had to run to the safe room in his residence. That means that our recording had been cut short. And so I will now reintroduce Itamar and lead into the conversation starting into where our recording had been originally cut off.

And so we were very happy today to have with us Itamar Marcus. Itamar is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, PMW, an Israeli research institute known internationally for its in-depth research of Palestinian society. He has presented PMW findings dozens of times in the US Congress, as well as international parliaments and conferences. PMW’s reports led to the Taylor Force Act here in America, and also to Israel’s deduction law, which passed in the Knesset. And his reports on the PAICC contacts led the United States to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority just this past July. Itamar is a frequent guest on various international news networks and is the author of several books, among them Deception: Betraying the Peace Process and Teaching Terror to Tots. Algemeiner has named Itamar as one of the world’s top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life or the State of Israel. I truly hope you enjoy the conversation that we had today with Itamar.

Host: Absolutely. The floor is yours, Itamar.

Itamar Marcus: Okay, so the question I ask here at the end is, who lied to whom? Did Mahmoud Abbas, when he spoke to Macron, tell him that he was actually going to condemn terror, and then when he got this letter that’s unacceptable, Macron decided to use it? Or did Macron know that knowingly lied to the international community, to the western countries, with this big, grandiose statement? And I assure you that the majority of the world leaders did not go to Al-Arabiya like we did to find the one station in Saudi Arabia that actually released the language, or part of the language of the letter. Nobody, we couldn’t find anywhere the full language. So the question is, is Emmanuel Macron intentionally deceiving the other western leaders? And by the way, a few weeks later, Canada announced that they would recognize in a lot of countries, and it sort of gained a lot of momentum in the West, all because of this lie that was made by Mahmoud Abbas, or Emmanuel Macron, or both of them.

Now, aside from this particular lie, all the West is talking about this demilitarized Palestinian state. Hamas is not going to be a part of it, or Hamas is going to be demilitarized. The West forgot to ask the Palestinians what they want. They’re telling the Palestinians what they’re going to have. And I want to show you some incredibly important polls that give us a completely different view, because what you see here, and I say this all the time, we always talk about Palestinians have to change their school books, they have to change their messages, they have to change their summer camps. They almost have to change the people.Change the people. Listen to what Palestinians believe. And I’m going to show you a series of polls here.

The first one was the first poll taken by a reputable polling agency after October 7 in 2023. This was done on November 14. Now, Palestinians were asked, do you support the military operation carried out by Hamas? 83% of the West Bank Palestinians said yes. 64% of Gazans said yes. Now, in Gaza it was lower because Israel had already started a counterattack, and there were a lot of people killed. A total of 75% of Palestinians said yes, but this is the key, 83% of West Bank, and that’s what I want to focus on. Now, this is the shocking one. Palestinians were asked, given the ongoing events, October 7 and the ongoing events, do you feel a sense of pride as a Palestinian? 98% of Palestinians feel a sense of pride. 98%. In other words, even those who felt that it wasn’t a smart thing to do, to attack Israel, they all felt proud about what Hamas did.

They felt proud about the fact that Palestinians went into Israel and raped and decapitated people and burned them alive. 98% said they were proud. And what’s even more shocking is, if you look at the breakdown, 94.1% said they were, yes, to a great extent, and 4% said to some extent. In other words, the overwhelming Palestinians, everyone- Palestinians are proud they can come and murder Israelis and rape them and humiliate them, destroy families, do a one-day holocaust of Israel. Palestinians feel pride. And this is the most shocking thing. Now, let’s just go on, because it continues to get worse. Now, a poll was taken in May of this year by Khaled Eskaki, the senior Palestinian pollster. And I want to just look at the West Bank here, not the Gaza Strip, because they’re suffering a lot. Now, I want to show you the West Bank. The West Bank is supposed to be the moderates. This is the Palestinian Authority, Fatah ruled.

So I want to show you, he has five different polls here that he took. So we see the changes. So December 2023 was the highest. It was 82% of the West Bank in support. This is what we just saw. It completely confirms the other poll, which had 83%, 82%. Now, a few months later, six months later, 71%, 73%, 64%. Now, May 2025, just a few months ago, already 50,000 people or nearly 50,000 people, they claimed to have been killed. Everybody knew that more than half of Gaza, two thirds of Gaza had already been destroyed, flattened. Yet, 59% of Palestinians answered the question, in your view, was Hamas’ decision to launch the offensive on October 7 a correct or incorrect one? 59% said it was correct. In spite of 50,000 being destroyed, that one day of pride, that one day of destroying Jewish lives, raping Jewish women, that made it a correct decision.

That’s what this poll is telling you about Palestinians. That’s what it’s telling you, because none of them can be happy about all the deaths and destruction in Gaza. Nobody can. But the one day that made them happy was that day, was that first day. This is what’s shocking. 59% of Palestinians in the West Bank, the moderate West Bank. This is what Palestinians believe. Now, in that same poll of May of this year, he asked Palestinians, do you support or oppose the disarmament of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to stop the war? 85% of Palestinians say they don’t want to stop the war if it means Hamas has to disarm. This is incredible. This is the entire Western program in the toilet. Entire Western program is Hamas is going to disarm, the Palestinian Authority police are going to come in, and there’s going to be peace. But the Palestinians don’t want it. Nobody asked them if they want that. Nobody asked them.

That’s why it’s all a joke. When you look at this poll that was done by ADL at the beginning of this year, what are your impressions of Hamas? 73% say it’s terrible. So it’s absolutely outrageous. Now, look at the Western leaders on October 8. So I’m talking about how France is detached. I’m assuming this letter and this announcement was initiated by France. This is what they announced. The foreign ministers, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom called for a political resolution, meaning they wanted the war in Gaza to end now, without the defeat of Hamas. They want a political resolution, and then they continue. A political resolution based on a negotiated two-state solution requires total demilitarization of Hamas. It’s complete exclusion from any form of governance on the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Authority must have a central role.

They have no idea what they’re talking about. These are the most unbelievable countries. When you look at them, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, countries that are permanent members of the Security Council, they don’t have any idea what’s going on in the international community. On something that’s so publicized, we publicize this. All they have to do is look at the polls, listen to Palestinians, what they say and what they want. No, we’re going to just make a political resolution, and Hamas is going to walk away and say, oh, yeah, that’s nice, two-state solution, let it be. It’s a joke. The Western leaders have no idea. Their heads are in the ground. They completely are involved in total self-delusion, suggesting something that makes no sense. Now, I just told you what Palestinians thought about the war. What do Palestinians think about Jews? This is another interesting question. I want to share this. This is so important because, again, these are the people who they want to give a state to, who they want to be living all of Judea and Samaria, which means they want them to literally have hundreds of kilometers of borders with us, literally.

That’s what they want. They want us to be safe, supposedly. Now, listen to what they feel about Jews. People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave, 94%. This is an ADL poll in the beginning of January 2025. 94% hate Jews because of the way Jews behave. 93%, Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own[?] 93%, Jews don’t care what happens- okay, sorry- Jews have too much control over different countries’ government, Jews have too much control. This is over 90%. Jews think they are better than other people, ninety[inaudible]. Now, what are their impressions of Israel? 1% of Palestinians have a favorable impression of Israel. Now, these are the people that the Western countries want to have a state in all of Judea and Samaria, leaving- if you know the maps and if you’ve been to visit Judea and Samaria, you know this is the highland.

This is not Gaza, where it would be difficult to attack. This is mountains all above all of central Israel, all above Tel Aviv, and all of Israel’s population would be within a couple of kilometers of this Palestinian state. 1% of them have a favorable, and 90% are Israel. ADL found that the Palestinians are the most anti-Semitic population in the world, the most anti-Semitic in the world. So when the government says it would be suicide or it would be inviting future wars, you can absolutely be sure this is a population that hates Jews, that hates Israelis, and the minute they had a state, they would start planning what was going on. And I’d say even more than that. If it was a state that was created by Palestinian Authority without Hamas, in the first elections they would elect either Hamas, or if they didn’t allow Hamas to run, Hamas would run under a different name, like it has in the past.

Hamas has always run under a different name, or another terror entity just like them. So this whole idea just shows that these Western countries, and Germany, and England, I don’t know about England, but Germany certainly, from my experiences with their leaders, they’re not anti-Israel today. They are still feeling guilty over the Holocaust, they are still supportive of Israel, they’ve been one of the holdouts in a number of issues where all of Europe, the EU wanted to do bad things for Israel, and Germany held out, and yet they’ve joined this letter. They have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to that. What I want to do is, just very briefly now, how did we get here? This is where we are now.

I want to just show you a little bit about the messaging from the Palestinian Authority to its people for about 5–10 minutes, and then we’ll open up to questions. How did we reach this part now? We reached at the Palestinian Authority of the most anti-Semitic population in the world, not because they didn’t come and evacuate, because this is a fundamental message of ideology. Their message is Jews endanger all of humanity, Jews ruin every society in which they live. I want to show you this in just a couple of examples. I could show you 100 examples, but I want to show you some of this. This is an article in the official Palestinian newspaper just a few months ago. From all corners of the globe, I see and understand the harm they have caused. Everyone in the world is suffering from the Jews. This is what he writes about. They want to subjugate the entire world. This is the official newspaper.

Here is a senior Palestinian writer on TV. The Jews, wherever they settle, try to take control of the country’s economy, wealth, and the PATB hosts, wherever they arrive, destruction follows. Listen to the world’s hero, the world’s peace hero, who [inaudible] described as peace broke out with him. Listen to what he says about why Hitler and Europe hate the Jews. [foreign language] I’m taking advantage[?] of Abbas’s speech to go back upstairs and connect myself. We’ll take another half a minute, and then you’ll be able to see me as well, and then I can continue the conversation.

Host: Itamar, are you with us?

Itamar: Yes, yes, I’m with you. I said that I decided to come back upstairs and reconnect to-

Host: Right, so you’re making your way back. I’m glad to hear that things are fine and safe in your home, and take your time and make your way back to your desk where we initially began this conversation. In the meantime, what we just saw on video, perhaps it was a little bit blurry, was a statement made on August 24, 2023, just a month and a half or so before October 7, by the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who Macron and others have vowed to recognize as the president of the so-called state of Palestine. In that statement, Abbas said that the Holocaust took place not because of the racist hatred of the Nazis towards the Jews, but rather because of activities pursued by the Jews having to do with global finance, et cetera. We’ve heard it all too many times before. There is an inherent anti-Semitism in Abbas’s rhetoric and in the policies that he pursues. Itamar, you’re back with us?

Itamar: Yes. Do you see me now?

Host: Yes, I see you.

Itamar: Okay. And you see the screen?

Host: I do.

Itamar: Okay, so let me just continue. What’s incredible here is Abbas said, Hitler killed the Jews because he believed they were causing ruin. What did we see in the Palestinian polls? 94% of Palestinians say Jews are hated because of the way they behave. That’s exactly what Abbas is saying. Jews are hated, Hitler hated them, the Europeans hate them because they behave, and that’s what everyone else is saying. Jews are responsible for anti-Semitism. It’s our own fault. We brought anti-Semitism on ourselves. Now, I just want to show you one more video on this because the Palestinian Authority takes this idea that the Jews brought anti-Semitism on themselves, and they use this as a fundamental part of their ideology. I want to show you this. They explain that the only reason Israel exists is because the world wanted to get rid of the Jews. Now, listen to this. Here’s a senior person, a senior researcher. The Palestinian Authority broadcast this interview three different times. They thought it was so important. [foreign language]

Their thinking is based on racism. They were hated everywhere, and the European hatred caused them to come up with the idea of creating a Jewish state. In other words, the Jews never had a history here. The Jews never would have thought to come here. The Europeans decided to create the state of Israel in order to get rid of the Jews. Who said this? None other than Mahmoud Abbas. Listen to him speaking. He wasn’t even embarrassed to say this in a public speech at the…[foreign language] He wanted to get rid of the Jews, and they wanted to have them rule the Middle East from Palestine. Again, this message is Israel only exists because everybody hates the Jews. One of the most disgusting wording of this, I’ll just show you a final one here. After October 7, a lot of foreign leaders came to visit Israel, and the Palestinians had to tell them why are all these leaders coming to Israel. Listen to this.

A political commentator, he said, “The reason why so many leaders are coming to Israel now after October 7 was because Europe and America succeeded in getting rid of the Jews whom they view as human waste, and they threw them out into Palestine. They created a place for them far away from Europe. They don’t want reverse migration now and the return of Jews to Europe again.” You see how fundamental this is to Palestinian ideology. The Jews are human waste. We endanger the whole world. We want to subjugate humanity. Therefore, Europe as a self-defense mechanism sent their Jews to Palestine, stole the land which Israel has no connection to, Jews have no connection to, and therefore Israel has no right to exist. Now, the PA solution has been repeated many times. One, about the problem of Israel. I’ll give you one example of each one. This is from Palestinian Authority Fatah education. Algeria received independence in 1962 after 132 years of colonialism. At the end of the period of French colonialism, all the French fled to France and left Algeria to the Arabs and Algerians.

This is in red because it was highlighted in red in the Palestinian book. Algeria’s experience assures that the Jewish settlers in Palestine will disappear in the end. What are they telling their kids? Don’t worry that Israel exists 77 years because French colonialism was 132 years in Algeria. In the end, all the French left and Algeria’s experience highlighted in red assures Jewish settlers, all the Jews are going to be gone. The end game for Palestinians is that children are taught everywhere. A world without Israel and a state without Jews. This is just one example of the maps that portray this. This is a map that I just accessed today on a school, a Palestinian school. This is the only map that exists in Palestinian schools that includes all of Israel. Here, it’s exactly with the message, this Palestinian state over all the land is going to destroy Israel. Now, so much for Israel. Israel is going to be gone. What about the Jews? The words that I’m going to read to you, we have heard eight times in the last year on official Palestinian TV.

This is a Sharia judge: Allah, strike the aggressive Jews, count them and kill them one by one, do not leave even one. Now, like I say eight times, most recent time was 10 days ago in the sermon, 10 days ago on Palestinian Authority TV. A call for extermination, could you imagine if anyone in Israel called for extermination of the Palestinians or Muslims, how the entire world would go crazy? No, but here, and we publicize it all the time, and it’s on our website all the time, and everyone can see it, and yet the world ignores it. This is the Mahmoud Abbas who supposedly wants a two-state solution, yet he has on his TV station regularly, eight times in the last year, called for extermination, kill them one by one, don’t leave even one. Now, I find it very important that he says kill them one by one.

They all do in this refrain that they keep repeating, because they tell their people that the future Jews are all going to be exterminated, and someone might say, “Okay, there are too many Jews, I can’t do anything.” They tell them, “No you can. We’re praying to Allah to kill them one by one, even if you kill one Jew, even if you kill one Jew, you’re helping us achieve our goal.” That’s the message here from the Palestinian Authority to its people now. I want to just touch on one final thing here, and then we’re going to open up to questions. I’ve talked a lot about the ideology, what the Palestinians believe, why the whole world is duped in a self-delusion, why the Palestinian Authority would be absolutely a dangerous state for Israel. Now, with all that, why is Hamas continuing a losing war? They claim 60,000 people are dead. We listen to the Palestinian radio, TV, newspapers every day. Every day, they’re announcing dozens more people killed, of starvation, of bombing, and some of it is true, most of it isn’t true, but their people have incredible numbers. So why is Hamas continuing, and why is the Palestinian Authority going along with this? Now, you have to listen to these quotes, because it is completely novel.

When countries go to war, they want to win the war, but not Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Listen to these two leaders, one from Hamas, one from the Palestinian Authority. Senior Hamas official, Azi Hamad: the whole world has begun to act against Israel. Who imagined Israel is now accused of genocide? Look how successful we are. We’ve had 60,000 people killed. The world is accusing Israel of doing it. It’s an amazing success. This is what he calls it. This is a Hamas official, but even a worse language. It was just a few weeks ago, you can see the whole video on our website. Jibril Rajoub, who’s a senior Palestinian leader, some people say he might even be the person to follow Mahmoud Abbas as the next leader. He said the following: October 7 war is the Palestinian Holocaust, and this is the winning card. It’s a winning card. Instead of saying it’s a tragedy, he’s saying this Palestinian Holocaust is a winning card.

For the Palestinian leadership, this war was not about winning on the battlefield. It was about demonizing Israel, about having Israel being accused of genocide. The more Palestinians that die in the war, the better it is for the Palestinian Authority. The better it is because that’s their winning card, according to Jibril Rajoub. This is what we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with the people who don’t care about the lives of their own people. Just the opposite. They want them to be killed because this is a war intended to bring about the deaths of many Palestinians in order to isolate Israel. Tragically, the Western leaders, as we see, have been completely suckered into this fantastic scheme of the Palestinian Authority. They’re all rushing now to give these people who celebrate the deaths of their people as a winning card, they want to give them a state. This is the international community. It’s tragic.

It’s particularly tragic for Israel. It is our hope that Israel and the United States will be able to counteract this, even before the events that happened in September and in the next two weeks, starting the next two weeks in the UN. Now, I just want to suggest one tactic that I think would be valuable for Israel and the United States. Everything about the Palestinian Authority defines them as a terror organization. Their leadership, we just heard on official PA TV, their religious leaders call for extermination of Jews. They call for the destruction of Israel. They promise that children of Israel will be destroyed. They deny Israel’s right to exist. They talk about the Jews being the enemy of all humanity and humanity won’t solve its problems until it really gets rid of its Jews. Then they reward the terrorists. They pay them salaries when they’re in jail. When they’re killed in a terror attack, their families, their wives, their children, or their parents get a monthly stipend for life because they were terrorists.

This is a terror organization. There is nothing about the Palestinian Authority that is not a terror organization. I think the fact that the United States and Israel all these years have continued to treat them as a problem, but not as a terror organization, has enabled the rest of the international community to move ahead with this desire to create a Palestinian state. I think a counteroffensive now would be for the United States and Israel to officially designate them as a terror organization, give them X amount of months to fix themselves up. In other words, to delineate what they have to do in the next six months. Then six months, if they don’t do this, then sanctions of the designation would come into effect as well. This is what I think Israel should do now. We can’t just stay on the defensive, “Don’t do it.” We have to go on the defensive and we have enough material to prove that they are indeed a terror organization.

Host: Itamar, thank you so much for this presentation. It certainly raises a lot of questions, both from our audience, which I’ve taken some time to write down and we’ll raise them here. I also have a few questions of my own. I’d like to start by referencing perhaps the earlier parts of the presentation where we discuss President Macron of France and other European and Western leaders. The argument that’s made there is that they are, I guess you could describe them as gullible. They’re unaware of the Palestinian authorities’ true intentions for the future of the land. They’re unaware of public sentiment among the Palestinians, which is decisively pro-Hamas.

We just saw the most recent poll at 59% support for October 7. Any erosion in support for October 7 that we’ve seen was not because of the immorality of this attack, but rather just because of the death and damage that has been caused in the Gaza Strip following this terrorist attack. To what extent is that the case? Then to what extent are those leaders very much aware of all of these things and are merely using this recognition tactic as a means to a political end? This is both to appease the changing demographics and political trends within their own countries, but also when we talk about center-left leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, who himself has no political future as he’s in his second term as President of France and he’ll simply be retiring at the end of it after the 2027 election there. These leaders are looking to their east. They’re looking at Germany and Italy, Austria, Hungary, etcetera. And they’re seeing a rising right-wing in politics over there, whether it’s the AFD party in Germany or Maloney’s rule in Italy. They’re seeing that their camp, the center-left camp, is losing ground on two ends.

On one end, it is losing ground to those right-wing parties. On the other hand, it is losing ground to far-left elements, whether within their own parties or just far-left parties that exist in their countries. To what extent have those leaders simply decided to use recognition of a Palestinian state and the throwing of Israel under the bus, if you will, as a means to a political end? And then a follow-up question on that would be, will it work or will recognition of a Palestinian state ultimately end up hurting these leaders politically and also hurting their countries and the West at large?

Itamar: I think the answer is not one general answer for all the different Western countries. And that’s, I think, the issue. The countries that have a very, very large Muslim population today, like France, I think they just don’t see anything else. Someone like Macron, he just wants to get out. He wants to finish his last term. I think there is something else that’s also going on. And someone like Germany, I don’t think they also certainly have a problem with a large Muslim population, but I don’t think they would knowingly hurt Israel right now or at any time up till now, maybe in the future, yes. So I think what’s happening is that the world has been suffering. I put that in quotation, “suffering with this Israel-Palestinian conflict for so many years.” And I think they’re saying, “Okay, we’ve had enough, we’ve had enough. Israel, just give them the land, just accept the state, nothing’s going to happen to you.” You’re strong, you’re powerful, look what you did to everybody else, all these different countries. Just do it. And then they really just want to solve it. They think that would solve the problem. And I think they’ve really convinced themselves, because of Mahmoud Abbas’s lies and other self-deception, that all you have to do is just, “Let’s just get rid of this problem, okay.”

It’s almost a little bit like Donald Trump has been an amazing ally of Israel, but in some of these conflicts, he just comes in and says, “Okay, end the conflict right now. You take this, you take this, finish, neither side is going to be happy.” I think they’re somehow trying to adopt that kind of analysis toward Israel. Now Trump isn’t, because I think he understands how dangerous the Palestinian state would be. And I’ll just tell you, we are constantly transferring material to the State Department and they’re using it very actively. So they’re aware of what’s going on with the Palestinian Authority. They know that, but I think the Europeans say, “Okay, you want the land, we don’t want you to have the land, just let’s end it.” So I think that’s part of the issue here. They’re just sick of this problem. And for them, it’s just- “It’s a thorn, let’s pull out this thorn, give them a state and that’ll be the end.” And of course, we know that’s not the case, and that’s why we can’t go along with it.

Host: Absolutely. And then you mentioned PMW’s activities with the State Department. And you also mentioned towards the end of the presentation certain actions that Israel and the United States can and should take following these moves by Western countries and by the Palestinian Authority. When we scheduled this call, this webinar just about a week or two ago, we had conversations, but we did not take into account the developments of last weekend, just three days or so ago, when the Department of State has decided not to grant visas to Palestinian Authority officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, as I understand it, to attend the UN General Assembly in New York later this month. Somewhat undercutting the dramatic effect, I would say, of their declaration of the state for the third time, I believe, and the recognition from several countries that would come afterwards. I understand from what you’ve said that this is certainly a move in the right direction.

It could also perhaps hint at a future designation of Palestinian Authority, whether it’s individual officials or as a whole, as individuals that are affiliated with terrorist activity, given that the reason given for their revocation of visas was that they are, in fact, supportive of terrorist acts, including the October 7 Hamas attack. But as you’ve mentioned, U.S. policy might not always go in this direction. It could certainly shift as the presidency changes hands, as majorities in Congress change hands. I’ve also been asked about EMET activity in this regard, and I’ll talk about that in just a minute. But I want to actually ask you, Itamar, first: should the U.S. change course and take a course of action that is more similar to other Western countries that we’re seeing right now? That could pave the way to recognition of a Palestinian state in the United Nations Security Council. What would be the consequences of such a move?

Itamar: Yeah, so this is what I’ve said earlier and I’ve said before, that there’s no real danger in the General Assembly recognizing a Palestinian state. Already, I think 127 countries have recognized the Palestinian state, the overwhelming majority, and it doesn’t impact on Israel at all. Now, of course, these are much more significant countries and they’re Security Council countries, and that’s what the difference is. Now, we don’t know… I mean, we do know that Donald Trump is not going to be president forever, and we have no idea who the following leadership is going to be. And that’s the danger right now in these Western countries supporting a Palestinian state, because a subsequent American president who might not have the same feelings toward Israel- and we all see what’s going on in the streets of the United States, and we all see the polls of Republicans and Democrats.

So, there’s certainly a possibility down the line that you’re going to have an American president with similar ideology to these Western Europeans who are leaders, who we’re just talking about. Not necessarily anti-Israel, wanting Israel to be destroyed, but just feeling, “Okay, just solve it, just get rid of it.” Now, the closer the Palestinians are to a state in terms of all these Western countries having recognized them, the easier it’s going to be, or the more likely it’s going to be that the United States will join them in the Security Council. Now, should that happen, should the Security Council recognize a Palestinian state on the ’67 ceasefire lines, meaning the ceasefire lines from 1949, what people call the borders, that would be a disaster for Israel, because it would mean that the hundreds of thousands of people, and it would mean Jerusalem, and literally hundreds of thousands of people, probably a million people by now, including Jerusalem, who are living across the old green line would then be officially occupiers, whatever that means. They would be very easy to then impose sanctions on anyone because, “Okay, you’re an occupier[?], you don’t belong there, you stole someone’s land.”

Now, of course, this is all ridiculous. It’s not based on anything. It’s not based on the Oslo Accords. It’s all fake. It’s all fake interpretation of international law that says that Israel can’t build in all of Judea and Samaria. But that’s not the point. If the Security Council decides to recognize a Palestinian state and then give Israel some ultimatums, and then six months later or a year later say, “Okay, you didn’t fulfill the deadlines, we’re now imposing sanctions.” Look at what they did to Russia. Israel could not survive with the kind of sanctions that the world put on Russia. If the world is in an anti-Israel mood, and the Security Council creates a Palestinian state, there’s no telling what might happen down the line. So that’s why we have to go on the offensive now. And that’s why I suggest doing something very, very strong and announcing to the world that the Palestinian Authority cannot be a state because they’re a terror organization.

You can’t just say, “No, it’s not the right time.” I cringe every time I hear leaders say, “You can’t give them a state because it’s a prize for terror.” Of course, it’s a prize for terror, but that’s not the point. That’s not the real reason. The real reason is that they are a terror organization in everything they say, everything they do, and every way they behave. And if Israel goes on the offensive and the United States and designates them, and then the world looks at, “Well, what are these reasons?” And then they will have to look at the reasons. And Israel will give them, and we will prepare all the list of the things that they have to accomplish to prove that they’re not a terror organization. And the world will be encouraging them, “Hey, do it, do this.” And the world will see that they are a terror organization. So we must go on the offensive. And I think that’s the only thing that I can think of right now that could really stop them.

Host: Yes, absolutely. As far as U.S. policy stands, I’d just like to remind our audience that what might stand in our favor at this moment is very longstanding, in fact, 35 or at least 30 years old, U.S. laws that actually prohibit any funding to the United Nations or its agencies and partner organizations if it is to elevate the Palestinians to full statehood absent an agreement with Israel. And so should a Palestinian state be recognized by the United States, it’s not enough for the administration to make that decision where a Palestinian state can be recognized through the United Nations Security Council and therefore achieve full UN membership and actual voting rights in the General Assembly.

They would also have to get Congress to actively repeal the longstanding U.S. laws that prohibit funding to the United Nations in case such a scenario takes place. And I’ve been asked about EMET activities on Capitol Hill in this regard. When we talk about recognition specifically, I would say that while this is a move that many have- not many, but a few lawmakers have already called for- it’s not something that we see as an imminent danger, given that the current Department of State and the current administration, which are the ones who have the power to do such a thing, will not be doing this, very likely will not be doing this at all during this current term. However, we are seeing a need to continue pressing hard and make the case for Israel each and every day, because it seems that the reasons for this current war breaking out and the reasons for this war being prolonged in the way that it is have been forgotten or lost on many on Capitol Hill.

And that is exactly what EMET does every day. We go on Capitol Hill physically and virtually, and we meet with lawmakers and their staff on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of Capitol Hill. We do it on a nonpartisan basis, of course. And we do two things. We educate and speak about recent developments and everything that is going on in the region. And developments are very real and affect the lives of all Israelis. Just earlier in this conversation, we saw how Itamar had to run to the safe room in his home following another Houthi- I assume it was a Houthi missile attack against Israel. I’ll have to get updated on the news after this webinar. And then we also do advocacy and we talk about the work that’s being done on Capitol Hill and the decisions being made by decision makers in America.

And we speak about the type of moves that we want to pursue and how they could affect positively or negatively the U.S.-Israel relationship, Israel’s global standing, as well as lives of Jewish Americans like ourselves. And so that is what we do every day. We do have time for one more question, and that is a question for you, Itamar. You did mention in your presentation several times, I think, reporting from Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya. And my question is- well, not my question, this is a question from our audience- but what role has Saudi Arabia played in all of these diplomatic developments that we’ve seen? We know that the Saudis joined the French in convening a UN conference on the Palestinian issue just a month ago or so. But do you have any insights as to what’s going on behind the scenes and what is Saudi Arabia’s main goal here?

Itamar: Saudi Arabia is in a bind. On the one hand, they’re much more- they’re completely interested in their own relations with the United States, in their own relations as they could potentially develop with Israel. There’s a lot of benefits for them there. They understand this, Israel’s technology. And that’s why, even though they didn’t actually finish joining the Abraham Accords, there was a lot of conversation about this. And had there not been this war, who knows, by now it might have actually happened.

Once the war happened, and once Hamas and the PA with their lies and the West’s support have convinced the world that there’s this genocide, as we saw there the Holocaust card, the winning card about the Holocaust, the Palestinian Holocaust winning card that Rajoub talked about- once it’s winning, the international community, the Saudis can’t ignore it. And I think that’s the problem here right now. Saudi Arabia is sort of being drawn into something because they really can’t be the only Arab country who is going to just leave the Palestinians in this genocide. So they have to join- “genocide.” So I think that’s the problem here for the Saudis. They wish this would go away. They’d love to see a ceasefire. And then they can get back to the serious things of promoting Saudi’s position in the world and their position with the United States and with Israel. But right now, they can’t be the only one and they’re not going to be the only one. And as long as this war goes on, Saudi Arabia is not going to be making any major moves toward improving relations with Israel.

Host: What I’m hearing is that this has to do with Saudi Arabia protecting its own standing within the Arab and Muslim world and the geopolitical dynamic that we’re seeing in the Arab world. Well, thank you so much, Itamar. I think it is about time for us to wrap up this webinar. Before we go, I’d like to just make two reminders to our audience. One is that if you have not yet signed up and saved the date, please do so for November 19. November 19 will be EMET’s annual Rays of Light in the Darkness dinner where we all gather in Washington, D.C. for an unforgettable night where we honor several people who have been key in ensuring U.S. support for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Among our honorees this year will be Senator John Fetterman of the great state of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And it is just going to be a fantastic night. I’ll be there so you’ll get to talk to me directly, no filters, about the work that we do every day at EMET.

And also I’d like to ask everyone to please support the work that we do. The work that EMET does every day is completely dependent on contributions from people like you. So please do go on our website, www.emetonline.org
, E-M-E-T-online.org, and make a contribution that supports the important work that we do on your behalf every day on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. I’d like to, of course, thank our guest speaker today, Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, PMW. It was a true pleasure having you today. We are glad that you are safe and sound, but nothing can stop an EMET webinar, not even a Houthi missile. And thank you so much, Itamar, for being with us.

Itamar: Thank you for inviting me.

Host: Yes, absolutely. It was a true pleasure. And with that, I wish all of our viewers a great day and onward and upward. Thank you very much, guys.

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