Yes. Like Trump's fool tying of tariffs to Brazil with blackmail regarding how their courts deal with Bolsonaro's efforts to promote a coup, Trump tying tariffs on Canada with how subservient it is to American foreign policy is an attack on Canada's sovereignty. We don't exist as a country if we cave in to a fascist US president who thinks we have no right to respond to a genocide with any gestures of support for the affected people at all.
Time to recognize that Israel is a terrorist state and recognize that Hamas is a byproduct of living in an Israeli made concentration camp called Gaza and horrific infringements on Palestinians on the West Bank. The conditions Carney put on recognizing Palestine as a state are impossible to meet so it's just the politically correct thing to do to say "recognize Palestine as a state" today as visuals of starvation overwhelm us. But such conditions have ensured for decades that Palestine will not be recognized as a state but just stay as comforting rhetoric. Time to look at both Palestinians and Hamas differently as we see Israel as a terrorist state.
The death suffering and destruction Israel has caused Palestinians since 1948 makes the Oct 7th attack by Hamas look very small. CONTEXT - history is essential to see this.
You just sound anti-semitic when you try to write off the murder of 1200 people and hostage-taking of a few hundred more, most of them ironically part of the Israeli left that supports a two-state solution. Hamas, after all, does call for the murder of all Jews in Israel, but has never had the firepower to make its dream come true. Israel may be a "terrorist state" (there are certainly many others in the world but no one calls for Ethiopia or Eritrea or Sudan to disappear because of their mass murder of other people; that demand is only made of Israel) but it came into its legal existence because both the US and the USSR, for various reasons, wanted it to exist. There were clearly far more Jews in the 1930s who wanted to leave Nazi Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia and countries that were ripe for Nazi takeover for North America or Britain or Australia than Palestine. But the western countries only wanted Christians and outside of the small Jewish communities in those countries, there was no one who supported their cause, including the left-wing parties who thought they had bigger fish to fry. Even earlier, the Zionist cause, which had very little support in North America, was fuelled far less by the religious messianism that fuels the current government of Israel, than by the sense of secular Jews that European countries, democratic and undemocratic alike, had no place for Jews (the Dreyfus affair in France, in which the establishment insisted that all good French people had to support the continuing imprisonment for spying of a clearly innocent Jewish guy precipitated the early Zionist movement). In Canada in the post-war period, even as every Nazi and fascist of the wartime period was allowed to enter, there were severe restrictions on Jewish entry at least until the 1960s. No doubt the Zionists were stealing someone else's land--but with the support of all the colonial powers who counted at the time, none of which wanted Jews within their borders--and the Palestinians have suffered the consequences of a long period of history in which Western powers treated the Third World as a checker board that they could do with as they wished. But Canadians are in no position to throw the first stones. This country has always been unwelcoming to Jews, had a "none is too many" policy in the 1930s, and sent back the Saint Louis that arrived with 900 Jewish refugees in 1938. The future of the one half of Jews in the world who live in the Middle East is also at play along with the future of the Palestinians. Having a Canadian refer flippantly to Hamas's efforts to murder Jews sounds like just one more instance of the long history of anti-semitism in Canada. Yes, we need "context" but it has to be a full "context." And the last thing anyone should do is give supporters of the current Israeli government fodder to justify their genocidal campaign against Palestinians. You may not understand why your narrow approach does just that. But it does anyway. No one who wants the Palestinians to get the chance to stay in the region which was theirs helps them by claiming that the Jews in the region should all be murdered or leave (where would they go in a world that doesn't want immigrants?). It's about as helpful as suggesting that all non-Indigenous Canadians should leave immediately and if we don't, we must let historical context justify it if there is a sudden mass murder of non-Indigenous Canadians by Indigenous Canadians.
I have read Finkelstein and agree with his analysis. But you don't do a good job of calling out the horrors of Israel's treatment of Palestinians by justifying/minimizing Hamas's massacre of civilians. You're doing what some ultra-left folks did in 2001 when bin Laden and friends bombed New York and Washington. They put it in the context of US imperialism and more or less said that those who died deserved it because they are part of an imperialist power. All that did was to get everybody's backs up in the US and make the job of those who opposed the wars on first Afghanistan and then Iraq pretty much impossible. The question here is strategy and how you use free speech. Running off at the mouth might be free speech, but ultra-polarization doesn't gain support for a position.
You are running off at the mouth. I never said the numbers of deaths told the whole story but they are a big deal. Eapecially if you are Palestinian. Jews tell us everyday about the 6 million. Proportionality is a big deal when you report to be an expert on equality.
Since Oct 7 2023 tens of thousands Palestinians have been killed, and an uncountable huge number are missing-under the rubble. Estimates put the real death toll between 200,000 and 400,000 and growing while those still living are malnourished and starving to death. Gaza has been leveled and Israel openly says there will be no Palestinian State Gaza-Palestinians are to be removed and the West Bank continues to be annexed. Only a fool would call "the death suffering and destruction Israel has caused Palestinians since 1948 makes the Oct 7th attack by Hamas killing 1,200 look very small." a flippant remark The thousands of Palestinians that Israeli's have in prison not on criminal charges but for "administrative purposes" are hostages too!
For someone who claims to care about equality you have no sense of proportionality. Canada can hardly be called antisemitic when we have been sending aide armaments to help Israel kill Palestinians. And suppressing those who speak out against Isreal. Many suppressed speaking out against Israel's disproportionate slaughter of Palestinian children and women are JEWS!!! Conflating calling out Israel with antisemitism is an ugly weapon. You are no humanist but highly preadjust.
Einstein and Erich Fromm and many other Jews were against Zionism. Einstein said "it goes against the teachings Judaism."
If one goes back and reads the historical documents by Zionism's founding fathers you see that ethnic cleansing was part of the necessary plan to make Israel a theocracy a state dominated by the "chosen people"- impossible to do without ridding of millions who made up the majority who are not the chosen people. It is like how the Nazis thought about the Aryan race. The Jews in Palestine were a small minority in the early 20th century and they were not Zionists that movement-migration- money- military force came from Europe and America.
Well, I agree. It wasn't a great idea and it was at the expense of Indigenous people. The same is true of Canada. But it's now there and so is Israel. The question is how to move forward and a few slogans won't make the grade. I think our discussion is at so vague a level as to be completely unhelpful.
If you agree that the original purpose of Zionism was to rid the area of Muslims why do you keep on harping on Hamas's original purpose was to eliminate Israel. Zionists made the the ugly mission statement first and Hamas reacted to it.
It's always flippant and unhelpful to pile up deaths on one side to justify deaths on the other. I suppose it makes sense if one is supporting Hamas's avowed goal in their founding document to wipe out the Jewish population of the region and impose strict Muslim rule. Many do, but they are a minority everywhere and they are unwittingly providing the justification for Israel to continue with its genocidal campaign which claims that somebody is going to get genocided and they will do their best to make sure it isn't them. If the goal is more modestly to stop Israel's war on Gaza and demand that the UN resolutions on Israel withdrawing from the lands it occupied in 1967 be implemented, why not stick to the facts about the destruction that is going on rather than trying to justify a massacre that occurred as small potatoes and putting that massacre in historical context to justify it? What would be more relevant in terms of that massacre is to point out the co-responsibility of Netanyahu's government. They thought that they had a "deal" with Hamas and the reason the border with Gaza was largely unprotected was that the government had moved battalions that would normally be doing that protecting into the West Bank where they were supporting settler efforts to establish more and more illegal settlements. Netanyahu also ignored clear signals from intelligence people about what Hamas was planning. I do agree that Carney's conditions on recognition of Palestine as a state are unfair, but they just repeat what the Arab states have been calling for. Even that is too much for Donald Trump who thinks he can retaliate against Canada for its efforts is where David Moscrop's article started, and we're all veering away from that. Do we really want to say that Canada finally taking at least a baby step in the direction of supporting a Palestinian state is irrelevant? It is something to build on, perhaps, but why support the Conservatives and the official Jewish organizations that are having a meltdown about all this by denouncing the government for a step in the right direction?
"It's always flippant and unhelpful to pile up deaths on one side to justify deaths on the other" In no way was I showing the disproportionate number of Palestinian deaths to justify more deaths of Israeli's but to hammer home how Genocidal Israel is being.
Most Canadians haven't a clue that it's not 60 thousand but more like 400,000...most Canadians think of it as a war when it's a very one-sided slaughter. More people would be protesting if the media reported the actual number of deaths. Alvin, the assumptions you make- the jumping to conclusions you make have me questioning your reliability as a historian. Read When Genocide Wasn't News: How Canadian media covered up the destruction of Gaza by Martin Lukacs et al. 2025 .
I never said Carney's statement was irrelevant...But I will repeat you need to read Norman Finkelstein, Ralph Nader, Chris Hedges and Mearsheimer who would all say you are understanding just how evil Israel and the Israeli Lobby is.
It’s very unlikely our government will back down on this recognition. It is not conditional, although those words have been used. It’s not based on any conditions being met; it is “premised” on the commitment to meet those conditions. The recognition has been given and will be formalized at the UN in September. The UK’s recognition is conditional.
I believe the recognition is more a strategic position than a moral stand - otherwise, what have we been doing the last 40 years where (now) 148 other countries have recognized the state of Palestine.
Trump, in this case, is just being the self-proclaimed stable genius best negotiator in the universe he believes himself to be.
It’s equivalent to sitting across from the union negotiating team and saying “you guys have ‘Every Child Matter’ pins on - that is going to make it very hard to strike a deal today” and expecting that this will improve your negotiating position.
Carney's proposal details for "recognition" (scare quotes, and needed) of Palestine are even more vacuous than those of Der Starmer (sic) over in Britain, per Al Jazeera, as well as your link.
Has Carney told Bibi that he must personally submit to the rule of law within Israel rather than his wag the dog wars?
On the conditionality, speaking from south of the border, yes, get into that in another post.
Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, but conflict between Hamas and Fatah (Abbas's faction) soon erupted. Canada lists Hamas as terrorists. You'll find Palestinians in Jordan and elsewhere including Israel. Who is behind Hamas feeding the disruption caused by this terrorist state? Iran, Qatar and many others. You are completely naive if you think changing the label /name will change anything.
David... you should have stayed out of this fight.. supporters of the Jewish state will not be happy and may affect your subscription rates.. that said.. in general, wars in the middle east will go on forever as they have not stopped for hundreds of years and continue for hundreds of reasons... war is a nasty game and unfortunately it is about winning at all costs.. which regrettably will involve many immoral acts like starvation, bombing hospitals, killing children, holding and killing hostages etc. Etc... I have no opinion on a Palestinian state but I would support whatever final decision that brings a lasting peace.. whether Canada or UK or France (all light weights in the world order) support it or not will have no bearing on what the USA wants.. in the past, Canada would follow the US lead behind closed doors to show a united front before announcing any position to the world... somebody should tell Carney!!
Agreed. Although the recognition of a Palestinian State must include a set of very comprehensive demands and limitations. As our government has already stated, Hamas must not be allowed to be the governing body. I was pleased to read today that the Arab League is condemning the October 7 attacks on Israel and calling on Hamas to disarm. That is a huge step.
Maybe the other Arab nations?. Although, I have a feeling they’ve been silently allowing Hamas to do their dirty work for them. I really really hope that their condemnation now changes the game.
Yes, but who will not allow Israel, which currently has a government filled with messianic fascists, to do as it pleases? The US? It is ministers in that government who, at one and the same time, call for the removal of all Gazans and for the total dispossession of West Bank Palestinians by illegal, thug Jewish settlers (mostly Americans), and then decry as antisemites anyone who says that the Israeli aim is genocide.
I guess the acid test might be to ask Palestinians who live safely elsewhere if they would rather stay where they are or return to a zone that was run by terrorists. Will it ever be free of Iran and its ambitions? I doubt it.
I think you've nailed it. The latest, and more are coming, recognition of a Palestinian state puts increasing pressure on Israel and adds credibility to the ICC. Combine this with the (very rare) unified demand, for Hamas to end it's rule of Gaza, from all the countries of the Arab League does seem like it could create a different environment. One with significantly more pressure on Israel to stop the killing, start real negotiations, not just for the return of their hostages, stop expanding settlements etc.
Yes. Like Trump's fool tying of tariffs to Brazil with blackmail regarding how their courts deal with Bolsonaro's efforts to promote a coup, Trump tying tariffs on Canada with how subservient it is to American foreign policy is an attack on Canada's sovereignty. We don't exist as a country if we cave in to a fascist US president who thinks we have no right to respond to a genocide with any gestures of support for the affected people at all.
But we should consider something all the more troubling.
That this isn't Carney losing, but rather winning for the capitalist class.
Carney and Trump have more common interests than Carney and any Canadian worker.
This has certainly been on my mind
I just want innocent people to stop being murdered.
Time to recognize that Israel is a terrorist state and recognize that Hamas is a byproduct of living in an Israeli made concentration camp called Gaza and horrific infringements on Palestinians on the West Bank. The conditions Carney put on recognizing Palestine as a state are impossible to meet so it's just the politically correct thing to do to say "recognize Palestine as a state" today as visuals of starvation overwhelm us. But such conditions have ensured for decades that Palestine will not be recognized as a state but just stay as comforting rhetoric. Time to look at both Palestinians and Hamas differently as we see Israel as a terrorist state.
The death suffering and destruction Israel has caused Palestinians since 1948 makes the Oct 7th attack by Hamas look very small. CONTEXT - history is essential to see this.
You just sound anti-semitic when you try to write off the murder of 1200 people and hostage-taking of a few hundred more, most of them ironically part of the Israeli left that supports a two-state solution. Hamas, after all, does call for the murder of all Jews in Israel, but has never had the firepower to make its dream come true. Israel may be a "terrorist state" (there are certainly many others in the world but no one calls for Ethiopia or Eritrea or Sudan to disappear because of their mass murder of other people; that demand is only made of Israel) but it came into its legal existence because both the US and the USSR, for various reasons, wanted it to exist. There were clearly far more Jews in the 1930s who wanted to leave Nazi Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia and countries that were ripe for Nazi takeover for North America or Britain or Australia than Palestine. But the western countries only wanted Christians and outside of the small Jewish communities in those countries, there was no one who supported their cause, including the left-wing parties who thought they had bigger fish to fry. Even earlier, the Zionist cause, which had very little support in North America, was fuelled far less by the religious messianism that fuels the current government of Israel, than by the sense of secular Jews that European countries, democratic and undemocratic alike, had no place for Jews (the Dreyfus affair in France, in which the establishment insisted that all good French people had to support the continuing imprisonment for spying of a clearly innocent Jewish guy precipitated the early Zionist movement). In Canada in the post-war period, even as every Nazi and fascist of the wartime period was allowed to enter, there were severe restrictions on Jewish entry at least until the 1960s. No doubt the Zionists were stealing someone else's land--but with the support of all the colonial powers who counted at the time, none of which wanted Jews within their borders--and the Palestinians have suffered the consequences of a long period of history in which Western powers treated the Third World as a checker board that they could do with as they wished. But Canadians are in no position to throw the first stones. This country has always been unwelcoming to Jews, had a "none is too many" policy in the 1930s, and sent back the Saint Louis that arrived with 900 Jewish refugees in 1938. The future of the one half of Jews in the world who live in the Middle East is also at play along with the future of the Palestinians. Having a Canadian refer flippantly to Hamas's efforts to murder Jews sounds like just one more instance of the long history of anti-semitism in Canada. Yes, we need "context" but it has to be a full "context." And the last thing anyone should do is give supporters of the current Israeli government fodder to justify their genocidal campaign against Palestinians. You may not understand why your narrow approach does just that. But it does anyway. No one who wants the Palestinians to get the chance to stay in the region which was theirs helps them by claiming that the Jews in the region should all be murdered or leave (where would they go in a world that doesn't want immigrants?). It's about as helpful as suggesting that all non-Indigenous Canadians should leave immediately and if we don't, we must let historical context justify it if there is a sudden mass murder of non-Indigenous Canadians by Indigenous Canadians.
Read Norman Finkelstein on how anti-semitism is weaponized to kill free speech and prevent calling out the horrors of Israel.
I have read Finkelstein and agree with his analysis. But you don't do a good job of calling out the horrors of Israel's treatment of Palestinians by justifying/minimizing Hamas's massacre of civilians. You're doing what some ultra-left folks did in 2001 when bin Laden and friends bombed New York and Washington. They put it in the context of US imperialism and more or less said that those who died deserved it because they are part of an imperialist power. All that did was to get everybody's backs up in the US and make the job of those who opposed the wars on first Afghanistan and then Iraq pretty much impossible. The question here is strategy and how you use free speech. Running off at the mouth might be free speech, but ultra-polarization doesn't gain support for a position.
You are running off at the mouth. I never said the numbers of deaths told the whole story but they are a big deal. Eapecially if you are Palestinian. Jews tell us everyday about the 6 million. Proportionality is a big deal when you report to be an expert on equality.
Osama Bin Laden made it clear he hated not America but America following the policies of the Israel Lobby.
Since Oct 7 2023 tens of thousands Palestinians have been killed, and an uncountable huge number are missing-under the rubble. Estimates put the real death toll between 200,000 and 400,000 and growing while those still living are malnourished and starving to death. Gaza has been leveled and Israel openly says there will be no Palestinian State Gaza-Palestinians are to be removed and the West Bank continues to be annexed. Only a fool would call "the death suffering and destruction Israel has caused Palestinians since 1948 makes the Oct 7th attack by Hamas killing 1,200 look very small." a flippant remark The thousands of Palestinians that Israeli's have in prison not on criminal charges but for "administrative purposes" are hostages too!
For someone who claims to care about equality you have no sense of proportionality. Canada can hardly be called antisemitic when we have been sending aide armaments to help Israel kill Palestinians. And suppressing those who speak out against Isreal. Many suppressed speaking out against Israel's disproportionate slaughter of Palestinian children and women are JEWS!!! Conflating calling out Israel with antisemitism is an ugly weapon. You are no humanist but highly preadjust.
Stop apologizing for Israel and hiding behind Canadian sovereignty.
Einstein and Erich Fromm and many other Jews were against Zionism. Einstein said "it goes against the teachings Judaism."
If one goes back and reads the historical documents by Zionism's founding fathers you see that ethnic cleansing was part of the necessary plan to make Israel a theocracy a state dominated by the "chosen people"- impossible to do without ridding of millions who made up the majority who are not the chosen people. It is like how the Nazis thought about the Aryan race. The Jews in Palestine were a small minority in the early 20th century and they were not Zionists that movement-migration- money- military force came from Europe and America.
Well, I agree. It wasn't a great idea and it was at the expense of Indigenous people. The same is true of Canada. But it's now there and so is Israel. The question is how to move forward and a few slogans won't make the grade. I think our discussion is at so vague a level as to be completely unhelpful.
If you agree that the original purpose of Zionism was to rid the area of Muslims why do you keep on harping on Hamas's original purpose was to eliminate Israel. Zionists made the the ugly mission statement first and Hamas reacted to it.
It's always flippant and unhelpful to pile up deaths on one side to justify deaths on the other. I suppose it makes sense if one is supporting Hamas's avowed goal in their founding document to wipe out the Jewish population of the region and impose strict Muslim rule. Many do, but they are a minority everywhere and they are unwittingly providing the justification for Israel to continue with its genocidal campaign which claims that somebody is going to get genocided and they will do their best to make sure it isn't them. If the goal is more modestly to stop Israel's war on Gaza and demand that the UN resolutions on Israel withdrawing from the lands it occupied in 1967 be implemented, why not stick to the facts about the destruction that is going on rather than trying to justify a massacre that occurred as small potatoes and putting that massacre in historical context to justify it? What would be more relevant in terms of that massacre is to point out the co-responsibility of Netanyahu's government. They thought that they had a "deal" with Hamas and the reason the border with Gaza was largely unprotected was that the government had moved battalions that would normally be doing that protecting into the West Bank where they were supporting settler efforts to establish more and more illegal settlements. Netanyahu also ignored clear signals from intelligence people about what Hamas was planning. I do agree that Carney's conditions on recognition of Palestine as a state are unfair, but they just repeat what the Arab states have been calling for. Even that is too much for Donald Trump who thinks he can retaliate against Canada for its efforts is where David Moscrop's article started, and we're all veering away from that. Do we really want to say that Canada finally taking at least a baby step in the direction of supporting a Palestinian state is irrelevant? It is something to build on, perhaps, but why support the Conservatives and the official Jewish organizations that are having a meltdown about all this by denouncing the government for a step in the right direction?
"It's always flippant and unhelpful to pile up deaths on one side to justify deaths on the other" In no way was I showing the disproportionate number of Palestinian deaths to justify more deaths of Israeli's but to hammer home how Genocidal Israel is being.
Most Canadians haven't a clue that it's not 60 thousand but more like 400,000...most Canadians think of it as a war when it's a very one-sided slaughter. More people would be protesting if the media reported the actual number of deaths. Alvin, the assumptions you make- the jumping to conclusions you make have me questioning your reliability as a historian. Read When Genocide Wasn't News: How Canadian media covered up the destruction of Gaza by Martin Lukacs et al. 2025 .
I never said Carney's statement was irrelevant...But I will repeat you need to read Norman Finkelstein, Ralph Nader, Chris Hedges and Mearsheimer who would all say you are understanding just how evil Israel and the Israeli Lobby is.
Jeffery Sachs could enlighten you too.
Understating just how evil
It’s very unlikely our government will back down on this recognition. It is not conditional, although those words have been used. It’s not based on any conditions being met; it is “premised” on the commitment to meet those conditions. The recognition has been given and will be formalized at the UN in September. The UK’s recognition is conditional.
I believe the recognition is more a strategic position than a moral stand - otherwise, what have we been doing the last 40 years where (now) 148 other countries have recognized the state of Palestine.
Trump, in this case, is just being the self-proclaimed stable genius best negotiator in the universe he believes himself to be.
It’s equivalent to sitting across from the union negotiating team and saying “you guys have ‘Every Child Matter’ pins on - that is going to make it very hard to strike a deal today” and expecting that this will improve your negotiating position.
Carney's proposal details for "recognition" (scare quotes, and needed) of Palestine are even more vacuous than those of Der Starmer (sic) over in Britain, per Al Jazeera, as well as your link.
Has Carney told Bibi that he must personally submit to the rule of law within Israel rather than his wag the dog wars?
On the conditionality, speaking from south of the border, yes, get into that in another post.
Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, but conflict between Hamas and Fatah (Abbas's faction) soon erupted. Canada lists Hamas as terrorists. You'll find Palestinians in Jordan and elsewhere including Israel. Who is behind Hamas feeding the disruption caused by this terrorist state? Iran, Qatar and many others. You are completely naive if you think changing the label /name will change anything.
David... you should have stayed out of this fight.. supporters of the Jewish state will not be happy and may affect your subscription rates.. that said.. in general, wars in the middle east will go on forever as they have not stopped for hundreds of years and continue for hundreds of reasons... war is a nasty game and unfortunately it is about winning at all costs.. which regrettably will involve many immoral acts like starvation, bombing hospitals, killing children, holding and killing hostages etc. Etc... I have no opinion on a Palestinian state but I would support whatever final decision that brings a lasting peace.. whether Canada or UK or France (all light weights in the world order) support it or not will have no bearing on what the USA wants.. in the past, Canada would follow the US lead behind closed doors to show a united front before announcing any position to the world... somebody should tell Carney!!
100%.
I appreciate your writing, but my subscription will expire at the end of the current term. Please move to a platform that does not promote Nazis.
Do you mean that Medium hasn't kicked Alvin off the platform or David hasn't figured out how yet?
Agreed. Although the recognition of a Palestinian State must include a set of very comprehensive demands and limitations. As our government has already stated, Hamas must not be allowed to be the governing body. I was pleased to read today that the Arab League is condemning the October 7 attacks on Israel and calling on Hamas to disarm. That is a huge step.
Oh, and who will not allow Hamas to do as it pleases? Canada? The only real deterrent in the region is Israel.
Maybe the other Arab nations?. Although, I have a feeling they’ve been silently allowing Hamas to do their dirty work for them. I really really hope that their condemnation now changes the game.
Yes, but who will not allow Israel, which currently has a government filled with messianic fascists, to do as it pleases? The US? It is ministers in that government who, at one and the same time, call for the removal of all Gazans and for the total dispossession of West Bank Palestinians by illegal, thug Jewish settlers (mostly Americans), and then decry as antisemites anyone who says that the Israeli aim is genocide.
I guess the acid test might be to ask Palestinians who live safely elsewhere if they would rather stay where they are or return to a zone that was run by terrorists. Will it ever be free of Iran and its ambitions? I doubt it.
Palestinian Israelis want nothing to do with Hamas or Gaza.
Those folks are definitely a huge problem.
I think you've nailed it. The latest, and more are coming, recognition of a Palestinian state puts increasing pressure on Israel and adds credibility to the ICC. Combine this with the (very rare) unified demand, for Hamas to end it's rule of Gaza, from all the countries of the Arab League does seem like it could create a different environment. One with significantly more pressure on Israel to stop the killing, start real negotiations, not just for the return of their hostages, stop expanding settlements etc.
We'll see.