Israel’s Moment of Decision on Hamas – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Surprise Attack and Israel’s Dilemma

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel, killing over 1,200 through rape, torture, kidnappings, and child executions shocking the world with its barbarity. This assault immediately presented Israel with an impossible moral dilemma of having to choose between eradicating Hamas to secure its future or negotiating for the return of hostages, thereby allowing Hamas to survive. Israel must decimate Hamas and cleanse Gaza for whatever post-war structure emerges, or prioritize hostage recovery at the cost of national security.

Hostages as Currency  

Hamas has strategically leveraged hostage-taking, fully aware of Israel’s deep commitment to individual lives — even at a national cost. The 2011 Gilad Shalit exchange, which freed over a thousand Palestinian prisoners for a single Israeli soldier, was initially hailed as a great success. However, it set a dangerous precedent, emboldening Hamas to repeat the strategy. In a tragic irony, one of those freed in 2011 was Yahya Sinwar — the Hamas leader who orchestrated the October 7 massacre.

Purgatory, Israel Style

Seventeen months into this war, Israel stands at a crossroads. After significant battlefield successes against Hamas and the broader Iranian axis, Israel now possesses the military capability, moral justification, and unparalleled American support needed to decisively eliminate Hamas, significantly weaken Iran — likely with American assistance — and reshape the Middle East.

Yet, the fundamental dilemma persists: How can Israel finish the war without Hamas executing the remaining hostages? Initially, on October 8, 2023, most Israelis agreed that coexisting with an entity sworn to their destruction was no longer an option. However, by July 2024, public sentiment had shifted. A Research poll revealed that 72 percent of Israelis prioritized a hostage deal over eliminating Hamas. Ceasefires aimed at rescuing hostages have repeatedly allowed Hamas to regroup, rearm, and amplify anti-Israel propaganda — especially on American college campuses.

Israel Is Hard on Itself. The World Is Harder

Adding to Israel’s internal struggle over war priorities are external pressures, including a deeply entrenched anti-Israel legacy media bias. Less than 24 hours after the October 7 attacks, mainstream outlets began their usual moral equivalence — or outright blame — against Israel.

For example, the BBC faced accusations of violating editorial guidelines 1,553 times in its coverage of the war, associating Israel with genocide 14 times more than Hamas. CBS went as far as to instruct journalists not to refer to Jerusalem as an Israeli city, effectively erasing Israel’s capital from the map.

The Biden Administration’s Undermining of Israel

After a brief show of solidarity, the Biden administration began hampering Israel’s war effort — delaying critical arms shipments and publicly condemning civilian casualties, despite Israel’s restraint against Hamas’s human-shield tactics.

During an October 2024 campaign event at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an activist accused Israel of genocide. Instead of outright rejecting the claim, Vice President Kamala Harris responded, “Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real.” Though her campaign later tried to walk it back, the damage was done. When the American president and vice president accuse Israel of war crimes in an existential war it did not start, it emboldens global antisemitism and weakens Israel’s position.

The United Nations’ Systemic Bias

​The UN’s anti-Israel bias is well-documented and spans decades. In 2024 alone, the General Assembly adopted 17 resolutions against Israel — compared to just six for the rest of the world combined. Even after Hamas’s October 7 atrocities, the UN refused to pass a resolution explicitly condemning the terrorist attacks.

The UN Human Rights Council, since its establishment in 2006, has adopted over 100 resolutions condemning Israel — more than those against Iran, Syria, and North Korea combined. Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been complicit in Hamas’s operations, with its facilities being used to store weapons and launch attacks against Israel. The UN’s enabling of Hamas is undeniable.

The Antidote: Donald Trump and This Republican Congress

The shameful Biden-Harris era — marked by moral equivalence and thinly veiled anti-Israel bias, fueled by the far-left influence of “The Squad” — is over. President Trump and his administration have consistently upheld Israel’s right to self-defense. His robust military support has already delivered $8 billion in weapons to Israel, providing the Jewish state with the means to decisively defeat its enemies.

Trump offers Israel a rare and crucial opportunity: the political cover to win this war, unimpeded by leftist anti-Israel forces, the legacy media, the UN, and the International Criminal Court. For the first time, Israel has the chance to fight for its survival without global interference.

Israel is closer than ever to achieving lasting peace — if it can reconcile the profound dilemma of prioritizing hostages or defeating its enemies. The two objectives may not be mutually exclusive; winning the war could provide the hostages their best chance for survival.

The 2011 hostage deal led directly to the October 7 massacre. The lesson should be clear: Israel must resume the war, withhold Gaza aid, and fight with the same resolve the U.S. demonstrated against ISIS in 2017.

Victory will not only deliver peace and security to Israel but also deal a crushing blow to Islamism — benefiting the entire world.

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