'US Won’t Decide Our Policies' – Sweden On Palestinian State Recognition

[branford]

24. I don't see how such a strategy really works.

First, with all due respect to the indicated countries, they are hardly political, economic, cultural, military or other types of world powers, nor do they have particular influence in Israel, the Palestinian territories, United States, or the wider Arab and Muslim world. The government of Sweden is certainly free to conduct their foreign policy as they choose, but their actions amount to little more than some moral support to the Palestinians, and as I already suggested, are probably designed for short-term appeal to their domestic audience while avoiding any problems with the USA.

More importantly, most countries and government have already recognized a de facto "Palestine," including the Israelis and the USA. Not only do they routinely negotiate various matters with the Palestinian Authority, the recognized government of the West Bank and (purortedly) Gaza, the elected government in Israel does not recognize the territories as Israeli, except for East Jerusalem, which they annexed decades ago. Even the recent cease fire in Gaza without the removal of Hamas is evidence of such de facto recognition.

The relevant issues to be decided, however, are exact borders, water rights, security matters, refugees, etc. Every country and the Security Council can recognize the "State of Palestine" today, and these matters will still have to be resolved and will face the same difficulties as before. Note how the Swedish declaration avoids these thorny topics.