B’nai B’rith President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

The United Nations conference on the “Two-State Solution” is an exercise in delusion. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is a failure: unable to provide security, unwilling for decades to engage in serious negotiations, inciting rabid anti-Semitism in its schools and its media. Instead of understanding this truth, the U.N. conference supports the PA and deems it should be rewarded with the running of Gaza post-conflict.

The PA’s inept and corrupt control of Gaza was one of the underlying long-term causes of the war, as Hamas was easily able to violently push out the PA after Israel evacuated Israeli communities during the disengagement. Nor should any sane actor take seriously the vague commitments for reform made by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas in his letter to conference co-conveners. Abbas has made similar commitments for years but never follows through. In the letter he also finally condemns the horrific Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack—almost two years too late. The PA is not the answer for Gaza if the goal is stability and peace for Israelis and Palestinians.

That was not the true goal of this conference, however. The goal was to push more countries to abandon common sense and moral responsibility and unilaterally recognize a non-existent Palestinian state while Hamas continues to hold 50 hostages in tunnels underneath Gaza. To their eternal shame, some states have pledged to do just that in the coming months. Hamas has applauded this predictably reckless enterprise, which its participants may one day soon rue. We thank the United States for standing with Israel in announcing in advance the wise decision not to take part in this farce.