When Carnage Becomes Legitimacy: How the West Lost Its Moral Compass

MATHEW GIAGNORIOAUG 30

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On October 7, 2023, evil came without disguise. At dawn, Hamas terrorists stormed across the border into Israel, murdering over 1,200 people in cold blood. They butchered families in their beds, burned civilians alive, and raped women before killing them. They gunned down young people dancing at a music festival, hunted them in the desert like prey. They dragged 250 men, women, children—even Holocaust survivors—into Gaza as hostages. They filmed themselves laughing and boasting over the dead.

This was not “resistance.” This was the calculated slaughter of innocents by an Islamist death cult whose charter openly calls for Israel’s destruction and the extermination of Jews. It is not a conspiracy theory; it is printed in black and white.

And yet, less than two years later, leaders in Western liberal secular democracies — the same governments that swore “never again” — are preparing to recognize a Palestinian state.

Think about that. The blood of October 7 is barely dry, hostages are still in captivity, Hamas is still armed and entrenched, and the streets of our own cities ring with chants to “globalize the intifada.” And this is the moment our leaders choose to hand political legitimacy to the cause Hamas claims to fight for?

The Diplomatic Blitz to Reward Terror

In the coming weeks, the announcements will roll out like some grotesque diplomatic theatre.

France has promised to act in September at the United Nations General Assembly, calling recognition a “necessary step for peace.” The United Kingdom, under Keir Starmer, says recognition will come after a ceasefire and humanitarian access — but not, apparently, after the release of hostages. Canada is ready to join in, demanding the Palestinian Authority hold elections in 2026 that exclude Hamas, as if the PA has either the will or the means to make that happen.

Malta and Portugal are on board. Australia is teetering, with its Prime Minister accused of selling out democratic principles for foreign policy posturing.

These aren’t fringe states. These are G7 nations — the very countries that once defined the rules of the postwar order — now willing to break from Washington and reward violence mid-conflict.

Moral Collapse in Real Time

We have never before seen Western governments legitimizing a political cause immediately after its armed faction committed a mass atrocity.

When the IRA bombed Omagh in 1998, killing 29 people, there was no rush to recognize Irish republican sovereignty. When al-Qaeda attacked New York on 9/11, no one suggested creating an “independent Islamic emirate” in Afghanistan as a gesture toward peace.

And yet here we are. Former UK Defence Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson called it “rewarding evil.” Lord Walney, the UK’s independent adviser on political violence, warned that recognition without disarmament tells the world that brutality works (source).

For families of hostages, the insult is unbearable. One father, whose 10-year-old daughter was held for 50 days, condemned the UK’s plan as “emboldening thugs.” The Chief Rabbi of Britain has called it a betrayal (source). And he’s right: this is moral bankruptcy in a suit and tie.

History Has Warned Us Before

1938: Britain and France hand Hitler the Sudetenland in the hope it will buy peace. Within a year, the world is at war.

1993: The Oslo Accords grant the Palestinian Authority political legitimacy and billions in aid. Terrorism doesn’t end — it escalates, culminating in the Second Intifada and suicide bombings that left buses and cafés soaked in blood.

Every time the West rewards aggression in the name of “peace,” it buys only the illusion of peace. And illusions have a habit of exploding.

Antisemitism Without Shame

Recognition is not happening in a vacuum. Since October 7, antisemitism has surged across Western capitals. “Globalize the Intifada” has become a rallying cry in London, Toronto, and New York. Posters of kidnapped Israelis are ripped down. Jewish schools receive threats. Synagogues are defaced.

The ADL reports antisemitic incidents skyrocketing — 537% higher in the UK in October 2023 than the year before. Social media teems with calls for Israel’s annihilation, dressed up in the language of “justice.” Islamist ideology isn’t hiding in the shadows anymore — it’s marching down our main streets with megaphones.

And what are our leaders doing? Sending the message that this rhetoric wins.

The Illusion of Conditions

Recognition, we’re told, will come with “safeguards.” Hamas must be excluded from elections. The Palestinian Authority must reform. Ceasefires must be respected.

But conditions mean nothing when the party enforcing them has no power to enforce them. The PA can’t disarm Hamas. It can’t run a credible election in Gaza. It can barely govern in the West Bank.

By recognizing this now, the West gives up its leverage. Once granted, recognition cannot be clawed back without sparking diplomatic chaos. Hamas will have achieved one of its core political objectives without surrendering a single bullet or softening a single word in its charter.

What It Really Achieves

It does not bring peace. It brings validation to the most violent actors in the conflict. It corrodes Western credibility. It tells every would-be terrorist that mass murder can move the diplomatic needle.

If this is what we now call “values-based foreign policy,” then our values are just slogans — hollow enough to be traded away for a news cycle’s worth of applause.

A Final Stand for Principles

This is the moment for clarity. If Western liberal democracies recognize a Palestinian state now — while the hostages remain in chains, while Hamas remains in power, and while our streets still echo with calls for another October 7 — then they will have forfeited any claim to moral leadership.

Peace does not begin with legitimizing an armed movement still committed to annihilation. Peace begins when terror is dismantled, when hostages come home, and when the culture of antisemitism is confronted, not rewarded.

Until then, recognition is not a bridge to peace. It is an engraved invitation to more and endless bloodshed.

Because when you reward terror, you don’t end it. You welcome it to your own doorstep.

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