The World Does Not Want Israel to Win the War Against Hamas

By Fred Fleitz (American Greatness)

The daring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rescue mission on June 8 that freed four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel was a pivotal event that should have shifted global opinion about the war in Israel’s favor by illustrating the shocking malevolence of Hamas and how little it values human life.
Unfortunately, this did not happen.

The IDF freed four hostages who Hamas was holding in apartment buildings, using the residents as human shields to prevent them from being freed. In addition, so-called “innocent” Palestinian civilians were incarcerating hostages in their apartments, with Hamas reportedly paying them to do so.

Abdallah Aljamal, a Gaza-based journalist, held three Israeli hostages captive in his home. Aljamal, who was killed in the IDF raid, wrote many stories slamming Israel for human rights violations in the war and killing Palestinians. He also was a spokesman for Hamas.

Desperate to prevent the hostages from being brought back to Israel by the IDF team, Hamas fighters attacked the team as it left the apartment buildings with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The IDF team defended itself and Israel was forced to conduct airstrikes to defend the hostage extraction.

Arnon Zmora, an officer of the IDF’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, was shot and critically injured by Hamas terrorists guarding three of the four hostages.

This was a great victory for Israel and demonstrated that it will not abandon its people taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. Hamas holding hostages in crowded civilian areas and its ferocious firefight against the IDF rescuers demonstrated how little Hamas values human life and confirmed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s belief that more Palestinian civilian deaths work to his advantage.

But most of the world saw the IDF raid differently. Israel was criticized for the large number of Palestinian civilian casualties in the raid, even though many were caused by Hamas fighters firing on IDF forces in a civilian area. The mainstream media and Western politicians cited, without question, exaggerated Palestinian casualty figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. U.S. and European media described the raid as a “deadly hostage rescue.” Some Western media outlets tried to downplay the fact that Hamas was engaged in hostage-taking by claiming the hostages had been “released” rather than “freed.”

A CNN commentator asked an Israeli official whether Israel had informed Palestinian civilians of the raid in advance to limit civilian casualties. The official replied that Israel did not. Israel was also criticized for the raid because it might set back a U.S.-led effort to reach a ceasefire.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the IDF raid might have been a war crime. Middle East media outlets were even worse, describing the raid as an Israeli “atrocity.”

After offering tepid support for the IDF raid, the Biden administration proceeded on June 10 to submit a resolution to the UN Security Council that endorsed its three-phase cease-fire plan for the Israel-Hamas War. The resolution passed overwhelmingly. Israel has not taken a clear position on the resolution and probably will not honor this deal because it would prevent Israel from destroying Hamas and would allow the terrorist group to rule Gaza after the war ends.

But it was Hamas that derailed the ceasefire deal by demanding a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza before it released the remaining hostages—a condition that Israel will never agree to.

Further complicating U.S.-Israel relations over the war, the Biden Administration has discussed holding direct talks with Hamas without Israel and mediated by Qatar to free five American hostages. These talks would also pressure the Netanyahu government to accept the U.S. ceasefire deal. Such talks—if they occur—would probably include a discussion of implementing a two-state solution peace plan, an idea Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack.

Incredibly, led by the Biden administration, Israel is increasingly isolated in its war to defeat Hamas and defeat the Hamas terrorists, who conducted the worst attack against the Israeli people since the Holocaust. The world has blamed Israel for rescuing its people. It also has held Hamas blameless for how its tactics of holding hostages in crowded civilian areas and firing on the IDF rescue team near large numbers of civilians resulted in a large number of civilian casualties.

And despite how this firefight demonstrated that Hamas fighters remain well-armed and dangerous, the Biden Administration—desperate to end the war because it is hurting Biden with his progressive base—is pressing Israel to accept a ceasefire deal that will prevent it from destroying Hamas and could allow it to resume governing Gaza.

The conclusion here is clear. The world does not care about the deadly October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. It has no interest in holding Hamas accountable for this atrocity. Spineless politicians and journalists can’t deal with photos and TV images of this war that Hamas started. They just want the war to end at all costs, even if Israel’s security is put at risk. The world does not want Israel to win.

This means that Israel’s leaders will need to press on alone to defend their nation against Hamas and other threats until there is a new president in the White House who stands firmly with the Israeli people. Hopefully, that will happen next January.

Fred Fleitz is vice-chair of the America First Policy Institute Center for American Security and editor of “An America First Approach to U.S. National Security,” available from Amazon.com. He previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member.