Israel will not allow Europe to divide it again - opinion

But what exactly are they recognizing, and how will the borders be defined? Led by whom – the Palestinian Authority, mired in corruption and autocracy? What will the foreign policy of this “state” be – more incitement, rocket fire, and glorification of martyrdom?

This isn’t about peace. It’s about Western leaders clinging to outdated ideas, ignoring history, rewarding terror, and playing dangerous games with Jewish lives – again.

Britain and France have done this before. A century ago, they divided the Middle East as if it were theirs to carve up. And among the territories they manipulated was Eretz Yisrael, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.

After World War I, Britain and France redrew the borders of the Middle East like imperial cartographers. Through the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement and the League of Nations Mandates, they divided lands they had no moral claim to.

The 1917 Balfour Declaration had offered a promise of a national home for the Jewish people. But that promise was soon undermined.

In 1921, Britain handed over 77% of the Mandate to create Transjordan, today’s Jordan, and barred Jews from settling there. Then came the 1939 White Paper, shutting the gates of Mandatory Palestine to Jews fleeing the Holocaust. British ships turned refugees away. Survivors were sent back to Europe, often to their deaths.

France, for its part, controlled Syria and Lebanon. Rather than support Jewish self-determination, it empowered Arab nationalism to maintain its colonial grip, actively opposing the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty.

Today, Jordan, which often postures as a moderate voice, continues to speak out against Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria. However, it is worth remembering that the Hashemite monarchy is not indigenous to the land – it originated in the Arabian Peninsula.

From 1948 to 1967, Jordan illegally occupied Judea and Samaria, including east Jerusalem. Synagogues were destroyed. Jews were expelled. Access to Jewish holy sites was completely denied. The world said nothing.

Now, despite its peace treaty with Israel, Jordan quietly fuels anti-Israel narratives while pretending to be a neutral partner. Israel should not take this duplicity lightly.

Then there is Qatar – a Gulf state with vast financial influence in Europe, and a long record of funding terror and anti-Israel propaganda. It’s no coincidence that both France and Britain are pushing recognition at the same time. Follow the money, and the motivations become clearer. This is not about human rights. It’s about power, leverage, and image – at Israel’s expense.

However, Israel never belonged to them, and it never will.

Israel is not a gift. It is the sovereign nation of a people who returned home after centuries of exile, persecution, and genocide. The Jewish people are no longer stateless. They are no longer begging for shelter on foreign shores.

They are home. They are sovereign. And they are not asking for anyone’s permission to exist.

Before redrawing lines in Judea and Samaria, perhaps Western leaders should look at their own societies – plagued by rising antisemitism, Islamist radicalization, and a deep confusion about history and identity.

France and Britain are no longer moral authorities in the Middle East. If anything, they owe the Jewish people an apology – not another betrayal.

Israel’s right to exist is not a European concession. It is the natural right of the Jewish people: Not Macron’s to recognize, and not Starmer’s to divide.

They carved up Israel once.

Now they try again, by handing over parts of it to those who reject peace and glorify violence.

Thankfully, they have no claim to this land. If I were advising the Israeli government, I’d have its best PR team prepare and deliver an unambiguous message: this land is not theirs to divide, lecture, or reassign.

I fight for the truth about Israel because I’ve been there – many times. I’ve also walked the streets of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank” – of Jordan) with Palestinian Arab villages just a stone’s throw away, stood at Israel’s borders with Syria and Gaza, and spoken with ordinary Israelis who live every day with the threat of terror.

I’ve met mothers raising children under rocket fire. Teenagers grieving friends lost in stabbing attacks. And communities who still hope for peace while surrounded by hatred.

I’ve also seen how Israel treats even its enemies with medical care and basic dignity. This isn’t propaganda, it’s reality; a reality which most of the world chooses to ignore.

France and Britain no longer hold any real power to change the course of a sovereign nation like Israel. They can pass motions, make speeches, and issue recognitions, but they do not define Israel’s borders, its capital, or its right to exist.

That is what must be stopped. As Israel is increasingly rejected, isolated, and vilified – let me say this clearly: Israel, you are not alone.