Streetwise Professor

The annual UN poseurfest is currently underway in New York. The main event is various Lilliputian leaders like Macron and Starmer announcing that their nations will recognize a “Palestinian state.”

Just what are they recognizing, exactly? Usually, recognition refers to a government. For example, in 1979 the US recognized the PRC as “the sole legal Government of China.” In the 1930s the US recognized the government of the Soviet Union.

So what government are these diplomatic giants bravely recognizing? The Palestinian Authority (PA), a corrupt, terrorist-adjacent (at least), autocracy? Hamas, about which nothing need be said?

And what are the borders of this “state”?

Details, details.

These initiatives are a direct response to the war in Gaza. If Manny and Two Tier Keir are recognizing the PA, it is utterly irrelevant–because the PA holds no sway in Gaza, having been eliminated from it by Hamas with extreme prejudice years ago. If the latter, they are recognizing a murderous terrorist regime.

Meaning that these stunning and brave initiatives are actually stupid and bullshit gestures.

For his part, Starmer adamantly denies that Britain’s recognition extends to Hamas. How principled!

Well, as the saying goes, possession is nine tenths of the law. And Hamas possesses Gaza–unless and until Israel extirpates them, that is. So what, exactly, will Britain’s recognition do to end the war in Gaza, which is supposedly the point of this political onanism?

For his part, Macron says that it is imperative to end “Israel’s war in Gaza.” Last time I checked, it takes at least two sides to have a war. Just whom are the Israeli’s fighting, exactly? Hamas could have ended the war they started months ago. By surrendering, thereby saving all those Gazan lives that Macron supposedly cares so much for.

They didn’t. So the beat goes on.

Macron has proposed that France will lead a multi-national effort that will disarm Hamas “gradually.”

I have read idiotic things before, but this is in the running for the most idiotic. Given their conduct in the last decades, who could possibly believe that Hamas would agree to be disarmed, and even if they did so in taqiyya fashion, they would actually follow through? And what is the point of disarming them if they are not combatants, meaning it is not “Israel’s war”? And doesn’t the necessity of disarming them imply they are not a legitimate government, and are in fact the cause of the war? Who is going to rule Gaza after they are disarmed? Islamic Jihad? And if they should be disarmed, why gradually? Is this like military methadone, slowly weaning Hamas off murder? And are we supposed to believe that France would follow through after the inevitable attacks, suicide and otherwise, on its “peacekeepers”?

The fact is that the only way that Hamas is going to be disarmed is when the Israelis pry Hamas’s weapons from their cold dead fingers.

The reality here is that Macron and Starmer et al are political eunuchs domestically who, unable to do anything at home, are strutting about the world stage. It is particularly pathetic in Macron’s case. France is a basket case right now, and his popularity ranks right up there with chlamydia. The chutzpah of this political Munchkin (who imagines himself to be Jupiter) lecturing the world on its moral duties is off the charts.

The other reality is that both Macron and Starmer are afraid of their restive Muslim populations. Better to throw a bone to les banlieues than deal with riots in them, eh, Manny?

Telling indeed was Manny’s meltdown over US ambassador Charles Kushner’s letter criticizing France’s feckless efforts to combat anti-semitism in the country. Just who are the most dangerous anti-semites in France? Its Arab Muslim population, obviously. Kushner (and hence Rubio and Trump) was essentially accusing Macron of cowardice for failing to address the source of the problem. Which hit Macron where it hurts.

Meaning that you cannot understand any action Macron takes with respect to the Muslim and Arab worlds without acknowledging its roots in one of Thucydides’ drivers of human behavior–fear.

Against the background of Macron’s posing and his hissy fit directed at the US, this is hilarious:

Priceless: Police in New York stops Macron's car, because the street is closed for Trump's convoy.

Macron calls Trump to allow him to pass, but Trump humiliates Macron and tells him to walk instead, which he does ?

pic.twitter.com/K1cnWUOBrB

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) September 23, 2025

Maybe this was just a SNAFU due to a miscommunication between Macron, the US government, and the NYPD. But maybe it was Trump trolling:

(Macron is Henery Hawk to a “T”).

Regardless, it demonstrates just what standing Macron has in the US. Which, in turn, demonstrates that all his posing will get him nowhere, and earn him even more ridicule.

So go home, Manny. You might need to choose another prime minister.