Shabbat shalom!
And a belated “tip of the kippah” to Robert Redford, a man whose faith in truth-telling, in independent voices, and in disciplined storytelling helped define modern journalism. But for me, All the President’s Men wasn’t just a movie. It inspired me in 1976 to change my college major from Business to English/Journalism and probably cost my parents another semester of tuition, but the additional investment was well worth it. So, thank you Mr. Redford, may his memory be a blessing.
The quiet persistence of Woodward and Bernstein, the stubbornness of chasing a lead even when no one else cared, those were the moments I replayed in my head when I first picked up a reporter’s notebook. Redford didn’t merely act the journalist, he produced the story. He bought the rights to the book, he consulted with Woodward and Bernstein, he insisted on accuracy, and often telephoned them daily to verify even small details.
In a time when too many believe that raising a flag or issuing a press release is a stand-in for power, we need Redford’s ethos more than ever. The idea that truths matter, that accountability must be earned, and that the gravest sins are those we refuse to spot even when they are spelled out in plain language.
Truth, unlike recognition, cannot be conferred by ceremony. Truth has to be pried loose, verified, and then defended. Which is why the spectacle of Britain, France, Canada, Australia and their fellow travelers rushing to recognize a Palestinian state felt like the exact opposite of what Redford championed. They were not chasing facts or demanding accountability, they were throwing confetti at a narrative, hoping applause would substitute for evidence.
Netanyahu, for all his flaws and theatrics, was right to call it what it was: a prize handed to terrorism, a blank check to Hamas (and Abbas!), a signal that hostage-taking and bloodshed are the price of admission to the club of nations. Recognition before de-radicalization is not statesmanship, it is malpractice. It robs the West of its only real leverage, the ability to say “change first”, then reward.
That leverage mattered. By burning it for the sake of optics, these countries emboldened the very groups they claim to abhor. Hostage-taking, already the grotesque centerpiece of Hamas’s playbook, is now further validated as a strategy. If statehood is a prize won through brutality, then the rational move is more brutality.
The scene surrounding Netanyahu’s trip to the UN said it all. To get to New York, his plane had to take a carefully plotted route, skirting countries that would happily arrest him if an emergency forced a landing. Then, before he even spoke, dozens of delegations staged a walkout, denying themselves the very thing they pretend to prize, dialogue. They left the room rather than hear an inconvenient truth, that rewarding terrorism breeds more terrorism, that recognition without reform is not hope but surrender.
If the West had a Redfordian commitment to truth, here is what would have been required before the words “we recognize” ever left a diplomat’s mouth: complete release of the remaining hostages, dismantling of terror infrastructure, curricula that affirm coexistence rather than glorify martyrdom, explicit recognition of Israel’s right to exist, the dismantling or reform of UNRWA, and penalties that actually bite when commitments are violated. Absent these, recognition is not diplomacy. It is self-delusion.
If you want to know why de-radicalization must be a starting point, not an afterthought, open a Palestinian classroom textbook. In one sixth-grade reader, students are presented with a banner lifted from earlier nationalist writing: “There is no alternative to destroying Israel.” Elsewhere, children are drilled on math problems by counting the number of “martyrs” from the First Intifada, a grotesque exercise in normalizing bloodshed as if it were just another arithmetic word problem. Maps in geography lessons often show every inch of land from the river to the sea as “Palestine,” with Israel erased as though it never existed. This is not cultural nuance, it is indoctrination.
Britain and France insist recognition is a way to “keep hope alive” and “preserve the two-state solution.” In their telling, it is a symbolic gesture meant to reassure Palestinians that peaceful diplomacy has not been eclipsed by Hamas’s brutality. Statehood now, they argue, will strengthen moderates and give reformers something to defend.
That all sounds noble until you notice the absence of evidence. Moderates are not empowered by premature recognition, they are erased by it. Hamas doesn’t see Britain’s vote as an incentive to soften, it sees it as proof that violence pays. And the so-called moderates in Ramallah are left with nothing to trade, no incentive to demand reforms from their own society, because the prize has already been handed out.
The French foreign minister went further, claiming that recognition will “rebalance the playing field” by showing Palestinians that their aspirations are acknowledged. But this isn’t rebalancing, it is rewarding refusal. Imagine if after Munich in 1938, the Allies had said: “Well, we’d better give Hitler some more recognition or he’ll lose hope in diplomacy.” It is the same logic of appeasement, dressed up in 21st-century jargon. The field doesn’t get rebalanced, it gets tilted toward extremism.
Redford’s legacy is a reminder that democracy survives only when people are willing to dig, to question, to expose, and to refuse shortcuts. All the President’s Men worked because it showed two reporters sweating over small facts, not congratulating themselves for big gestures. Western democracies just did the opposite. They congratulated themselves for a symbolic flourish while ignoring the facts screaming in their faces, that the Palestinian leadership they are elevating still exalts terror, still educates its children to hate, and still clings to a fantasy of Israel’s erasure.
Readers of the JNR know that I favor a two state solution. But recognition before reform is a Humpty Dumpty moment. Once you’ve smashed the leverage on the pavement, all the presidents’ men and all the Western diplomats won’t be able to put a credible peace process back together again. If recognition were a currency, the West just printed counterfeit bills and handed them to Hamas. Redford knew better. You don’t build integrity with props, and you don’t win peace by subsidizing fantasies. You earn truth the hard way, or you don’t get it at all.
Stay safe everyone, and try to enjoy the weekend.
Brad out.
Jew News Review 