“Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.”
“Hamas must release all hostages, lay down its arms, and have no future in the governance of Gaza.”
These statements were made by US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, respectively, following the murder of six Israeli hostages by their Hamas captors. They represent a shift in rhetoric from both leaders in the face of the latest of Hamas’ endless atrocities.
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 massacre, the US and other Western nations stood by Israel and supported the goal of eliminating the threat posed by Hamas and ensuring that no massacre like the slaughter of 1,200 people on the Jewish holy day of Simchat Torah ever happens again. But over time, this moral clarity faded, and statements like the above gave way to moral equivocation and demands for a ceasefire that would only allow Hamas to prepare for its next attempt to massacre thousands of Jews.
Joe Biden did not kill American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He did not kill Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi, or Alexander Lobanov. They were not killed by Benjamin Netanyahu either. Any leader who is in office when such atrocities are committed against their citizens bears a certain level of responsibility for not preventing them, but the blood of the murdered is on the hands of their executioners, the butchers of Hamas, their leader Yahya Sinwar, and their master Ali Khamenei.
It takes a truly evil kind of person to execute hostages in cold blood, people who have been starved, beaten, and subject to months of nonstop abuse and torture and who pose absolutely no threat. Israel’s enemies have proven themselves capable of such depraved evil multiple times before, including the Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games and the Ma’alot Massacre of 25 people, including 22 schoolchildren.
The statements by President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau that the leaders of Hamas will pay for this atrocity and must surrender and no longer govern Gaza are welcome, but there is every reason to believe this moment of moral clarity will be as fleeting as a cool breeze on a hot summer day. Both statements went on to feature calls for a deal to end the war, as if Hamas would agree to a deal in which its leaders would pay for their crimes, lay down their arms, and give up control of Gaza.
This moment of moral clarity will pass because Biden and other Western leaders have already proven that they are susceptible to the antisemitic smear campaign against Israel.
The campaign to accuse Israel of a fake “genocide” began before Israel had even responded to the real act of genocide committed by Hamas on October 7. It was begun by people who supported and cheered the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
If there is anyone whose hands are stained with the blood of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, it is those who have openly supported Hamas and worked to undermine American and global support for Israel’s fight against the modern-day Nazis.
This includes the government of South Africa, which decided to openly ally with Hamas and Iran and to bring a spurious charge of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice in order to create a situation where Hamas is free to kill as many Jews as it wants – which is all of them.
It includes International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who decided on the basis of little more than hearsay to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, ignoring basic principles of the ICC, international law, and the actual evidence. Even after it was definitively proven that there was no famine in Gaza, he still refuses to make a single amendment to his warrant request to reflect the fact that his accusation that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war has been proven completely false.
The South African government and Karim Khan are part of the same global campaign to criminalize any and every action taken by Israel to save the life of a single Israeli child so that Hamas can kill with impunity. Khan may have also requested warrants against Hamas leaders, but he has yet to demonstrate that he has any actual interest in prosecuting those real war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas as he has shown in prosecuting Israel for war crimes he already knows never happened.
This global campaign had the desired effect. Support for Israel’s justified goal of removing Hamas from power and as a threat dropped like a stone, and by early 2024 the Biden Administration, spooked by the prospect of losing Muslim votes in places like Michigan and the vehemence of the constant protests, began echoing the constant criticism of the war by these bad actors and opposing any action that would actually remove Hamas from power as they originally agreed was necessary in October 2023.
The way the US has pursued a ceasefire and constantly pressured Israel for more than half a year only made things worse, especially for the hostages. Rather than put and keep the pressure on Hamas to release all of the hostages, lay down its arms, and surrender, as it should have, the US and much of the Western world have pressured Israel to let up its pressure on Hamas and to agree to deals that would guarantee Hamas’ survival to kill another day and may not have even freed all of the hostages.
They put ending the war at all costs and sending limitless aid into Gaza was above all else, even the fate of the hostages. Even the fate of an American citizen like Hersh Goldberg-Polin was secondary at best to ensuring that Gaza was spared the consequences of starting a war by massacring its neighbors in the eyes of the Biden Administration.
This wrongheaded policy had the exact opposite effect of what they intended. If the Biden Administration had pressured Hamas and its supporters instead of Israel, the war might have been over already and the hostage crisis might have ended with far more of the hostages still alive.
By delaying necessary operations like the IDF’s entry into Rafah, by giving Hamas time to move the hostages or kill them as just happened, by sending so much aid directly into the hands of Hamas, US policy has prolonged the war by months and made a ceasefire deal much harder to reach.
Hamas does not feel that it is desperate and needs to stop the fighting at all costs. It feels that it is in a position of strength to dictate terms not only to Israel, but to the US, to the greatest superpower in human history.
Perhaps worst of all, this encouragement of Hamas instead of pressuring it because of short-term thinking about what is politically expedient or will end the fighting today will lead to the taking of more hostages in the future.
At the recent Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden said that the rabid anti-Israel protesters “have a point.” It is this mindset that ensures his statement that Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes will not be backed up with any action and that his policy will effectively be the opposite.
The anti-Israel protest movement loves to burn American flags. They love to praise the leaders of genocidal terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. They chant genocidal slogans like “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They target Jews, Jewish schools, and synagogues. The goal of Hamas supporters is the same as Hamas, the destruction of the vast majority of world Jewry and the collapse of Western civilization. They do not “have a point” because the only point they try to make is that Israel, the Jews, and the US are evil and need to be destroyed by any means necessary.
If Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau are serious about the statements they issued right after they learned of the execution of the six hostages, they will change focus and shift policy. Rather than pander to the antisemites of the world and the “death to America” crowd, rather than attempt to secure the vote of those who want to see America and Canada destroyed and the Jewish people annihilated, they would put real pressure on Hamas to surrender and support Israel’s efforts to destroy the terrorist organization. Rather than continue attempting to freeze the conflict so that it can start all over again in a few years, they would go back support ensuring that the atrocities of October 7 never happen again as they did so briefly in late 2023.
That would require real leadership, a moral backbone, and a willingness to stand up to evil. Biden in particular has lacked these qualities in 2024. But perhaps now that he no longer has to worry about running for reelection, he can do in the fall what he should have done in spring and summer, pressure Hamas and support Israel.
There are still over 100 hostages languishing in Gaza, including children as young as one. Make them the priority, not setting aid records or ending the fighting at all costs, and the fighting will end faster. Make defeating Hamas the priority, and the next massacre and war will be prevented instead of guaranteed.
Above all, make it the priority that these be the last hostages Hamas and those like it ever take and ever kill.
Gary Willigis a veteran member of the Arutz Sheva news staff.