On July 29, 2025, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that the United Kingdom would recognize a State of Palestine unilaterally unless Israel and Hamas reach a ceasefire by September 2025. If terrorism is a wildfire, Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron — who announced on July 24 that France would also recognize Palestine — have chosen to pour gasoline rather than water on it.

Put aside Starmer’s factual confusion: Hamas, not Israel, refuses both a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages it seized on October 7, 2023, during a previous ceasefire. Pictures of cerebral palsy patients and Yemenis and Syrians do not equal starvation in Gaza; nor does a growing population suggest genocide.