By Rewarding Hamas for Its October 7 Atrocities, the World Is Incentivizing Their Repetition

What Elie Wiesel once said about the Holocaust has proved prescient: ‘Believe the threats of your enemies more than the promises of your friends.’

Hamas is better off today than it was on October 6. By murdering, raping and kidnapping nearly 1,500 innocent Israeli babies, women and men, Hamas has accomplished nearly all of its goals. It has turned Israel into a pariah on university campuses, in the international community and in much of the world. 

The International Criminal Court is seeking to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, apparently equating them with the terrorist leaders of Hamas. The international Court of Justice is siding with Hamas.  Three European nations have said they would recognize Palestine as a state. 

Hamas has turned Israel’s closest ally, the United States, against it. It has made Israel into a partisan issue, following years in which it was among the few issues on which both parties essentially agreed. It has essentially harmed any immediate prospects for peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It has weakened Israel economically, and now militarily as the United States threatens to withhold ammunition.

These incredible successes — at least as judged from Hamas’ perspective — could not have been achieved without the cooperation of left-wing American press such as CNN and the New York Times. It could not have been achieved without the backing of the students, faculty and administrators at some of America’s most elite universities. 

And most importantly it could not have been achieved without the support of the current American administration, which despite its claim that it has Israel’s back, has decided — largely for political reasons — to paint a target on it.

The Israeli Defense Forces are now moving more deeply into Raffah in order to achieve its legitimate military goals. Although it has transferred nearly a million Gazans out of harm’s way, there will be civilian casualties. This will only increase the demonization of Israel.

Ronald Reagan won the presidency by asking whether voters were better off today than they were four years ago. Adapting that question to Hamas — the answer is clear:  Hamas is better off today than it was on October 6. The citizens of Gaza are not better off. Nor are the citizens of the West Bank. Hamas couldn’t care less about Palestinians, though. 

Its goal in perpetrating the massacres of October 7 was to strengthen its position in the world at large and in relation to the Palestinian Authority in particular. It has succeeded beyond its wildest expectations. The reason is apparent to anyone who understands history. 

By attacking Israel, with the knowledge that Israel would have to retaliate, Hamas understood that it was taking advantage of the oldest prejudice known to humankind — the double standard the world has applied to Jews over the millennia. That double standard is most obvious today with regard to Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people. It also applies to Jews in general, though. 

When Israel engages in urban warfare, more is expected of it than of any other nation. The fact that its armed forces have killed fewer civilians in relation to combatants than any nation in history, especially any nation whose enemy is using its civilian population as human shields, has been largely ignored by the press, by universities and even by Israel’s allies. 

Facts don’t seem to matter when it comes to Israel, in much the way facts didn’t matter historically when it came to blood libels against Jews. What matters about Israel is not so much what it does, but rather what it is: namely the Jew among nations. Hamas and its supporters have played into this deep-seated prejudice and have turned many in the world against Israel.

Whatever the reason, the reality cannot be doubted: Hamas has benefitted from its barbarism. No one can doubt that, least of all Hamas and Iran, who are cheering the turnaround in world opinion.

In some respects October 7 was a modern-day version of Kristallnacht in 1938. The Nazis attacked Jewish stores and murdered Jews in plain view of the world. It was a test. The world reacted in muted fashion, sending a message to the Nazis that it could do more and worse, which it did. 

An even more dangerous message was sent to Hamas, because although much of the world reacted in horror immediately after October 7, that horror quickly turned against Israel when it did what Hamas fully expected it to do, namely respond by seeking to destroy the terrorist group that murdered its citizens. 

Even before Israel sent a single soldier into Gaza many on the left, — including lawyers, professors, students and others — blamed the atrocities on Israel, thus giving Hamas an immediate victory. At that point, Hamas pledged to repeat what it did on October 7 again and again and again. Now, its incentive to carry out its promise has multiplied.

So expect more October 7s. What Elie Wiesel once said about the Holocaust has proved tragically prescient about October 7: “Believe the threats of your enemies more than the promises of your friends.” Hamas will carry out its promised terrorism against its sworn enemies, especially as the United States breaks its promises to its closest ally.