OPINION: The United Nations of capitulation

The 80th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly begins this week in Manhattan’s Turtle Bay. For one week, 140 of the world’s pre-eminent heads of state will descend upon New York for what’s often billed as the “World Cup of diplomacy.” The heightened security, the motorcades, the immovable traffic, the frantic media coverage — it is all meant to underscore the gravity of this global gathering, where world leaders are under normal circumstances expected to tackle the world’s most urgent crises.

But before the first speeches are even delivered, this year’s Assembly has already revealed itself as a dangerous charade. Instead of setting the stage for serious dialogue and meaningful progress, several nations have chosen to use the global spotlight to make performative, unilateral declarations of recognition for a Palestinian state. These moves, praised jubilantly by Hamas, do not advance peace. They do not ease suffering. They certainly do not assist in the release of the 48 hostages still held in brutal Hamas captivity. Instead, they set a precedent that violence and terror are rewarded at the world’s highest stage.

Consider the timing. These proclamations come on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and just weeks before the two-year anniversary of October 7, the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The murderous Hamas terrorists behind that dark day’s slaughter have been watching intently as events unfold in New York. Their messaging has been unambiguous that moves toward recognition of Palestinian statehood, announced already by Canada, Australia, Portugal and the United Kingdom, are the “fruits” of October 7.

Suffice it to say that if Hamas is applauding your diplomatic strategy, you are not on the right side of history.

The grotesque irony was on display earlier this week. As Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese formally recognized a Palestinian state, Hamas executed three men in Gaza accused of treason. Blindfolded and bound, they were forced to kneel before being shot in the head, as a crowd looked on and cheered.

The note Hamas terrorists left on the mutilated corpses read as follows: “To all mercenaries of the occupation and collaborators – the time has come to cut off your heads.” Within hours of these barbaric executions, a democratic nation rewarded the very regime carrying it out with the symbolic legitimacy of statehood, somehow believing Hamas terrorists or “pay-for-slay”-supporting leaders of the Palestinian Authority could ever be legitimate partners for peace.

This is not diplomacy. It is capitulation. And it is one that carries consequences far beyond the Middle East.

By granting recognition without conditions, leaders like Albanese and the UK’s Keir Starmer are signalling that there are no red lines, no accountability, and no standards for governance. Hostages can remain in captivity. Hamas can continue to rule Gaza through fear and violence. Antisemitism can surge unchecked.

This is the opposite of statesmanship. True diplomacy requires difficult choices, steady principles, and the willingness to resist easy applause lines. Instead, we are witnessing a race to the bottom, where governments exploit the UN’s global stage to win favor with domestic political constituencies rather than to forge more difficult pathways to peace.

The damage is profound. First, this approach emboldens extremists worldwide. If the lasting lesson of October 7 is that terror works, that massacres deliver lucrative political dividends, then copycats will not be far behind. The world will find itself complicit in normalizing the tactic of mass civilian slaughter, hostage-taking and rape as a path to international recognition.

Second, such grandstanding corrodes the UN itself. The General Assembly has long been maligned as a stage for performative virtue-signaling rather than problem-solving, but this year’s actions risk tipping it into outright irrelevance. What credibility can the UN claim if it becomes a venue for rewarding terror groups while ignoring the suffering they inflict on their own people and neighbors? Gazans remain trapped under Hamas’s rule, enduring economic collapse, violence, and repression. Yet the world’s leaders are choosing to grant Hamas the political prize it craves without demanding any improvement in the lives of those it governs.

And finally, this approach fuels division and hatred at home. In Britain, Canada, and Australia, recognition has been celebrated not as a bridge to peace but as a cudgel against Jewish communities. The toxic message to Jewish citizens is clear: the trauma of October 7, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, is not only disregarded but effectively legitimized on the world stage.

Every serious statesman longs for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East. But peace cannot be willed into existence through symbolic gestures that bypass reality and ignore necessary security pre-requisites. A Palestinian state that emerges from the ashes of October 7, without conditions, without reforms, and without guarantees, is not a foundation for peace. It is a glistening reward for violence and an inevitable guarantee of more bloodshed.

As the motorcades sweep through Manhattan this week, as the speeches echo through the halls of Turtle Bay, let us not mistake performance for progress. The world’s leaders should resist the temptation of hollow declarations and return to the hard work of true diplomacy: demanding accountability, upholding standards, and ensuring that terrorism is punished, not rewarded.

Otherwise, the General Assembly will become not a forum for peace but a stage for charades. And the price of that colossal failure will be paid in lives.

Jonathan Harounoff, Israel’s international spokesperson at the United Nations, is the author of “Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt.”