The nations of Europe are passing the buck.

At a time when European governments should be leading the way in convincing the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table—a place they abandoned well more than a year ago—many European leaders are acceding to Palestinian efforts to bypass this essential step in the process of statehood and take a shortcut that is doomed to fail, and won’t lead to a Palestinian state.

Rather than leading, too many European nations are following, enabling the Palestinians to shirk their duty to take positive and meaningful steps toward statehood.

Why is it that Europe is failing to send a strong message to the Palestinians that distractions, diversions and meandering are not a policy that will bring about peace?

Once again, the Palestinians are inappropriately using the United Nations—this time via UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)—to evade direct negations with Israel.

In a vote on Oct. 31, the UNESCO General Assembly granted “Palestine” full membership by an overwhelming margin. Perhaps most disturbing and disappointing, such countries as France, Austria and Greece (which abstained in an earlier vote of the executive board on this issue) voted in favor of full UNESCO membership. By abstaining, Britain and Italy missed an important opportunity to take a stand: a “no” vote would have carried significant weight and been a sign of leadership. While it’s true that they did not vote in favor, they should have been saying to the Palestinians: don’t circumvent direct peace talks. By every definition abstaining is an attempt to have it both ways.

The 52 abstentions, among them a number of other European nations, signify a missed opportunity for leadership.

The United States, Israel, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden are among the nations that should be commended for recognizing this prejudicial Palestinian tactic and voting “no.” Just 14 nations, out of 173 voting rejected the measure.

The United States had urged the Palestinians to defer the vote and come back to the negotiating table. But the Palestinians ignored those entreaties.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the UNESCO vote was “regrettable, premature and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.” Nuland continued: “The United States remains steadfast in its support for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, but such a state can only be realized through direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

But the Palestinians continue to subscribe to their own version of reality.

Inexplicably, after the final count, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the PA’s own Wafa news agency: “This vote is a vote for peace.” His logic makes no sense.

Peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce incitement and recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Peace will only come when the terror groups Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad, stop firing rockets into Israel. In a blatant display of arrogance, Palestinian rockets fell on Israeli cities immediately on the heels of the UNESCO vote.

Israel—under constant attack from the Palestinians—has the biggest stake in a peace that will ultimately benefit the entire region. Israel has consistently said it supports a two-state solution. Regrettably the Palestinians neither recognize nor acknowledge the need to negotiate that objective. Their U.N. strategy chooses to ignore Israel.

This UNESCO action follows the Sept. 23 Abbas announcement before the U.N. General Assembly that he had submitted a measure to the security council requesting “Palestine” have full membership in the U.N. body.

The Palestinian plan to appeal to 16 U.N. bodies in advance of a full security council vote later this month represents a dangerous and slippery slope that far too much of Europe is ready to slide down. It is time for the nations of Europe to exert leadership and convince the Palestinians and the rest of the world to take the only path that can lead to two peaceful states coexisting side by side in the Middle East—the path of direct negotiations.