‘Recognition diplomacy’ can’t break the Palestine deadlock

In this commentary, Prof Joseph Liow, Tan Kah Kee chair in comparative and international politics at NTU’s CoHASS and chairman of the Middle East Institute, NUS, writes that despite the latest efforts at the United Nations, three parties – Israel, the US and the Palestinians – ultimately hold the key to peace. The chorus of international support for Palestine grows louder, with France, Britain and Canada recently joining more than 140 other countries at the United Nations in officially recognising the state of Palestine. Yet for all the latest efforts to pressure Israel to stop its military offensive in Gaza and to keep alive the hope for a two-state solution, there are limits to what “recognition diplomacy” can achieve. The harsh reality is, prospects for peaceful resolution are less likely to be advanced by recognition than by the actions of three protagonists in this agonising script: Israel, the US and the Palestinians.

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