In a leaked diplomatic cable obtained by Reuters, the United States has urged governments around the world to boycott a high-profile United Nations conference that aims to revive international consensus for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
The strong-arm tactics—described by one European diplomat as “bullying, and of a stupid type”—reflect a growing anxiety in Washington and Tel Aviv: that the tide of global opinion is turning decisively against them.
The cable, sent by the U.S. State Department on June 10, warned that countries participating in the New York summit may face “diplomatic consequences” if they support what Washington calls “anti-Israel actions.” These include recognizing a Palestinian state or supporting boycotts and sanctions against Israel.
At the heart of the panic is a fear that international legitimacy may finally begin to shift toward the Palestinian cause, threatening to unravel a decades-long project: the creation and maintenance of the Israeli state, forged in 1948 with direct support from the United States on land forcibly taken from the Palestinian people.
“Unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state would effectively render Oct. 7 Palestinian Independence Day,” the cable declared, likening Hamas’ cross-border attack to a declaration of nationhood.
“The United States opposes any steps that would unilaterally recognise a conjectural Palestinian state,” it continued, calling such efforts a threat to Israel during wartime.
Fear of Legitimacy
The language reveals more than concern for diplomacy—it reflects a profound fear that the world is waking up to a historical reality long suppressed in Western narratives: that Israel was not born of divine right or historical inevitability, but through a campaign of ethnic cleansing, land theft, and forced displacement known to Palestinians as the Nakba.
Over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes in 1948, replaced by a settler-colonial state propped up by Western arms and cash. The U.S. was among the first nations to recognize Israel and has since provided over $300 billion in non-repayable aid—the vast majority in military assistance—making Israel the single largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II.
In stark contrast, America’s other wartime allies were not so privileged. The United Kingdom, despite being instrumental in defeating Nazi Germany, was forced to repay billions in U.S. loans under the 1946 Anglo-American Loan Agreement—a debt it only fully paid off in 2006. Similarly, Ukraine, now receiving tens of billions in U.S. weapons and financial assistance to resist Russian aggression, is expected to repay much of that support through long-term post-war reconstruction bonds and IMF-linked conditions.
The message is clear: Israel is not treated like a normal ally. It is treated like a project—one that must be defended at all costs, even as it stands accused of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes.
France’s Gamble
The upcoming conference is co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. President Emmanuel Macron has hinted that France may use the opportunity to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state—an unprecedented move for a Western power and permanent UN Security Council member.
Such recognition, particularly amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank, would be a powerful repudiation of the U.S.-Israel axis. It could catalyze a wave of similar recognitions from other G7 nations and help enshrine Palestinian sovereignty in international law.
Israel’s response has been predictably furious. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lobbied Macron to back down, arguing the conference rewards “terrorists” and undermines Israeli security. The U.S. cable echoes this logic, asserting the conference “emboldens Hamas” and “undermines delicate negotiations” over Gaza.
The Real Crisis
Behind the diplomatic posturing lies a deeper crisis: Israel’s global legitimacy is eroding, and its allies know it. The scale of death and destruction in Gaza—over 55,000 Palestinians killed, most of the enclave in ruins, and nearly 2 million displaced—has stripped away Israel’s claim to moral high ground.
Across Latin America, Africa, and even parts of Europe, governments are now openly labeling Israel an apartheid state. Civil society is ahead of governments: trade unions, universities, and faith groups are endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice are now directly involved.
And now, the conference in New York threatens to expose an even greater truth: that the Israeli state, far from being a beacon of democracy, was born of colonial violence and sustained through occupation. That truth, once confined to dissidents and historians, is now breaching the walls of power.
A Shifting World
The U.S. cable may have been intended to intimidate—but its contents reveal a flailing empire trying to suppress the global majority’s demand for justice.
France, if it proceeds, could mark a historic break: the first major Western nation to declare what so many others have already acknowledged—that Palestine is real, and Israel’s status as a democratic state is no longer tenable.
For Washington and Tel Aviv, the fear isn’t that the conference is symbolic. The fear is that the symbol is finally cracking the myth.
