On Thursday Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom announced that her government would recognise a Palestinian state, saying: “There are those who will argue that our decision to recognise the state of Palestine is premature. If anything, I fear that it is too late.” Sweden has become the first European Union (EU) member to recognise a Palestinian state, a development that may signal the beginning of the end for unconditional western support to Israel, which has been the status quo since 1948. Ms Wallstrom is part of the social democratic government that took power in Sweden this year after an eight-year stint by the centre-right Alliance for Sweden coalition. Israel responded sharply to the Swedish government’s decision by recalling its ambassador for “consultations”. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the press that Sweden should recognise that the Middle East is “more complicated than self-assembly furniture at Ikea.” Ms Wallstrom replied by saying that she would be happy to send Lieberman an Ikea pack to assemble and that: “He will see it requires a partner, cooperation and a good manual.” The statement reflects the spreading recognition in the west of the hurdles that Israel has placed in the negotiations process while blaming them on the Palestinians. Earlier this month the British parliament overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution to recognise a Palestinian state with one lawmaker saying: “To make our recognition of Palestine dependent on Israel’s agreement would be to grant Israel a veto over Palestinian self-determination.” Israel says that empowering the Palestinians will make it more difficult to reach a final accord and that any recognition must come after a final settlement. Palestinians say that recognition will make it harder for Israel to change facts on the ground before a final peace accord can be reached. Ms Margot’s announcement noted: “New Israeli settlement decisions have hampered a two-state solution.” Many of those settlements are in the area of Jerusalem, one of the final-status agreement issues that remain intractable. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital while Palestinians stipulate East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. If Palestinian statehood moves from being a symbolic to an actual outcome, Israel’s administration as an occupying power would become illegal under international law. Currently it maintains that individual actions under the occupation may be illegal but that the occupation is necessary for its security. However, its brutal massacre of 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza this summer created an international outcry that appears to have critically shifted public opinion against the occupation, leading to calls for Palestinian recognition and, from some quarters, sanctions on Israel. The decision by Sweden is a welcome reminder that even in the most intractable conflicts, solutions are present if governments have the moral courage to see them through. With Israel’s overwhelming military and diplomatic superiority over the Palestinians, only mounting diplomatic pressure and spreading recognition of Israel’s unending human rights violations creates the possibility of a just peace agreement. *