Justifying France's recognition of the state of Palestine, President Emmanuel Macron said: "We must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security." Whereas, US President Donald Trump during his address before the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in New York vehemently opposed recognising the state of Palestine saying such a move would reward atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel.

So far 150 out of 193 UN members states have recognised the Palestinian state. Western countries like the UK, Canada and Australia have also followed France. Even though the US refused to grant visa to a Palestinian delegation to participate in the recent UN General Assembly session, President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas addressed the session by video link. The growing isolation of Israel and the US on the question of recognising the Palestinian state proves that the next move will be to take stringent measures against the Jewish state by imposing sanctions.

It was in the mid-seventies when PLO was granted an observers status in the UN and since then two things have happened: one, gradual legitimacy has been accorded to the Palestinian state; and two, a majority of the UN member states had recognised Israel by mid-1990s. Yet, the two-state solution which was supported by the US particularly when the PLO and Israel signed the historic accord granting recognition to each other got jeopardised after the........

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