In what is beginning to look like a case of doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons, Australia, Britain, France and Canada, each with its own twist, are planning to announce recognition of the state of Palestine at next month’s UN General Assembly meeting.

These longstanding allies and trading partners of Israel are telling the Jewish state they disapprove of its conduct of the war in Gaza, the ensuing humanitarian crisis and treatment of the West Bank Palestinians.

I don’t doubt the three democracies’ support for the two-state solution is genuine, but demographics and domestic politics may also play a role. Each has a growing Muslim population far larger than its dwindling Jewish population. Pew Research reports both the UK and France no longer have Christian majorities.

Israel

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