JERUSALEM, Israel – Should the world recognize a Palestinian state? For social media influencer Hananya Naftali, the answer is no. We spoke to him about the reasoning behind his stance.

He recently produced a video called "Why recognizing Palestine is a Global Disaster."

The text of our interview is below.

CHRIS MITCHELL:  Hananya Naftali, thanks for joining us. You did a reel recently. It's called "Why recognizing Palestine is a Global Disaster." What were you trying to communicate through this real?

HANANYA NAFTALI:  Well, look, I think that recognizing Palestine, especially after October 7th, it's basically rewarding Hamas, because we already see that there is a de facto Palestinian state, and it's in Gaza. What did we get in return for that de facto Palestinian state? Nothing but terror, rockets, and violence.

The European leaders that want to recognize Palestine – they're basically rewarding terrorism, because they're only encouraging and adding more fuel in this terror machine called Hamas. But if you want to talk about the historical facts, so obviously, in my opinion, Palestine exists today, and it's in Jordan. The majority of the population of Jordan today – they are Palestinian, so they already have a Palestinian state. We only have one Jewish state, and we need to hold on to that one Jewish state that we have. We don't ask for more states. We have only one. And we only want to keep that one that we have.

CM:  Yeah. Last Friday, the U.N. General Assembly voted 142 to 10 against, and 12 abstained, to recognize a Palestinian state. What do you think is the significance of that vote?

HN:  Well, I think the U.N. has lost all of its moral compass, and we've seen it time and time again when the U.N. was rewarding Iran, for example, by placing it, as head of the U.N. Women's Committee, and, you know, applauding North Korea and Syria.

You see, they're very persistent in their obsession with Israel.  They keep passing resolutions against the one democracy in the Middle East. I served in the Army. We are the most moral army in the world. I was never taught or commanded to target Palestinian people. No army in the world is dropping leaflets, warning civilians, losing the element of surprise, just to keep Palestinian civilians alive.

So when you look at the UN, I don't think that they are an example (of) moral clarity. Actually, Israel is, and in my opinion, the U.N. should be dismantled, reformed, because it became a political body that pursues after politics and not justice or human rights.

CM:  Hananya, what would you say to Gen Z when they're hearing chants like "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." What would you say to them?

HN:  Well, I would encourage Gen Z to look and research, and try to dig deep into the facts, because, on the surface, you know, the chants like "Free Palestine" sound very appealing. It's a movement to liberate an occupied nation. These are the kind of lies that they're selling in order to gain publicity and sympathy among Gen Z.  

But actually, when you actually research and look into things like that, you learn that this is a genocidal chant against the Jewish people that have returned to their ancestral homeland. So I think that questions must be asked, because when you ask serious and tough questions, you reach two conclusions, and you will learn that Israel is fighting not just for herself, but for the survival of Western civilization.

Because when you're in the Middle East, you learn that this is a tough neighborhood. But you will also learn that Israel is not perfect, but there are no perfect countries. But Israel sets an example of how wars should be conducted. And also keep in mind, Israel did not start this war; we want to end this war.  So my message to Gen Z is to ask questions, ask questions, and don't believe what you are being told by the mainstream media.

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