When I read this story, Western recognition won’t change the reality on the ground: A Palestinian state has never seemed further away, I could not help but think of Poland. In the 19th century a Polish state also seemed far away, as you can see in this story: When Poland Was Nowhere: Foreigners Reflect on the Partitions & a Stateless Nation. It starts off by saying:

At the end of the 18th century, the Polish state, having been partitioned by neighbouring empires, was erased from the political map of Europe. Poland, as one French playwright would later put it, was ‘virtually nowhere’. And yet this did not mean that Poland and Poles would disappear from the political agendas and minds of members of the elite in Europe and elsewhere.

We can never know how history will turn. Maybe Palestine too will be ‘virtually nowhere’. I have my doubts that it will be, just like the Poles of the 19th century — my ancestors — had their doubts. Predicting the future of states is a fool’s game, and history never repeats. But anyone who thinks Palestine might as well be “a country on the moon”** should reconsider their statement in light of what happened to Poland as it went from the 19th to the 20th century.

** “With respect to us, Poland might be, in fact, considered as a country in the moon.” – Edmund Burke.