Will Western states recognizing the State of Palestine change anything, in view of Israel's out of control militarism and colonial settlements? A very good panel on TRT tv this morning.

It's comforting that fact-filled discussions on Israel-Palestine and Western colonial traditions can occur on tv in a civil manner, as happened here. I was honored to be part of it.

Bottom line: UK, Canada, Australia, France and others recognizing the State of Palestine is a positive symbolic gesture and should be encouraged and built on to move to more functional and humane changes in conditions in Israel-Palestine and the half dozen states in the ME that Israel routinely bombs, with US, UK and other Western assistance. The critical dynamic to watch for is whether massive and still growing popular solidarity with Palestine around the world can translate into policy changes in Western states, particularly the USA.

Israel and its zionist supporters, apologists, and henchmen in the US will try harder than ever now to make an actual Palestinian state impossible, using the same means they have used since the 1920s — ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian majority; destroying homes and hundreds of entire villages; expanding zionist colonial settlements to deprive the Palestinians of their lands where they could establish a real state; constant military assaults against all Arab and other parties in the entire ME that dare to resist Israel’s US-backed settler-colonialism; and, of course, the constant cacophony of lies, distortions, detractions, and deceptions that try to make it impossible for a genuine discussion on Palestine-Israel to occur in many western countries.

All this is slowly evolving, though, as public opinion across the world, including in the US and the West, sees the brutal colonial realities of zionism and Israel, and refuses to be complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Change will occur slowly, as it always does when policies of big powers are concerned. Today we see many signs of that slow change underway, often led by progressive Jews across the world. Western states recognizing the State of Palestine is a sign of this dynamic, which we must all work hard to push forward so that the legitimate rights of Israelis and Palestinians are implemented equally and simultaneously.