Allowing Hamas to survive will do nothing to further the prospects of peace for anyone in the region.

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President Joe Biden has not only promised to veto any stand-alone Israeli aid, but he's reportedly circulating a draft resolution within the United Nations Security Council that would compel the Jewish state to stop its ground offensive in Rafah and, effectively, give Hamas a pass. Beyond that, the U.S. is also reportedly thinking about circumventing Israel and formally recognizing a Palestinian state.

In other words, while Ukraine is prodded by the United States to fight for every inch of its land, Israel is prodded to commit suicide.

Anyone who dares to suggest the United States push Ukraine to negotiate a settlement with Russia is framed as a democracy-hating Putin shill. Yet, before we even knew exactly how many Israeli women and children had been murdered, raped and kidnapped by Hamas, Democrats were demanding Israel negotiate with Palestinians to create a potential three-front Iranian-proxy terror state on its border.

Those who wonder what the endgame of a U.S. proxy war against a nuclear power in Europe might look like are told that the only acceptable outcome is complete victory for Ukraine. The very future of world democracy, we are assured, hinges on the integrity of that nation's borders.

Israel, though, is asked to surrender its territorial claims and reward those who supported, coordinated and participated in a massacre of its civilians – which included 30-plus dead American citizens – with a brand-new nation. It is only through this concession that peace can be realized, contends the Western foreign policy elite. Which is weird, considering former President Donald Trump circumvented the Palestinian problem and forged a historic peace agreement. Biden immediately reverted to Obama-era Iran-coddling – and, well, here we are.

Put it this way: Imagine, if you can, the Biden administration arguing, only weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion, that the only way to "achieve an enduring end to the crisis" and "lasting peace and security" for Ukrainians was to create a new Russian ethnic state in the Donbas.

We are also told that if Putin is handed even a partial victory, the next thing you know Russians will be marching on Berlin. American troops, we are warned, will be compelled to defend Europe. At the same time, Israel, which has never asked a single American soldier to fight for it, is (yet again) expected to hand its enemies a reprieve.

Allowing Hamas to survive will do nothing to further the prospects of peace for anyone in the region. If Israel stops now, the war against Hamas will have been for naught, since a large contingent of the terror army has retreated into Rafah to hide among civilians, as is their wont. Since the United Nations, Gulf theocrats, Iran and Western powers insist on sending hundreds of millions in aid that is siphoned off by the Islamists, Hamas will reemerge in Gaza – and almost surely in the "West Bank," should there ever be a Palestinian state.

It also needs to be stressed, however, that what Biden demands isn't really a "ceasefire." It is Israel unilaterally yielding its advantage, since Hamas hasn't agreed to any cessation of the conflict – and even if it did, its assurances wouldn't be worth anything. Lest anyone forget, there was a ceasefire in place on Oct. 7, 2023. No, the lesson, once again, is that terror works.

While both Israel and Ukraine have a right to fight for their sovereignty and people, obviously the two conflicts are unique in numerous ways. Not all comparisons work. Jews, for instance, have far stronger historic ties to Samaria and Judea than Ukrainians have to Donetsk or Crimea – even though only one has been asked to surrender land for peace.

Indeed, the only one of these two democracies that bestows full rights to its ethnic minorities is portrayed as the apartheid state. Israel has offered Palestinians massive concessions on numerous occasions, including their own state. So even though my hope is that Putin is severely weakened by his war of aggression against Ukraine, Israel's war against Islamism and terror is far more important in the long-term battle for "democracy."

But the ugly truth is that Biden's reelection prospects are threatened by the emerging progressive Left and pro-Hamas faction of the Democratic Party. And there is no one, no issue, the president won't sell out for votes. This is why the administration sends emissaries to pacify the people who cheered the Oct. 7 attack. This is why the White House leaks snippets of Biden insulting Israel's (elected) leader in a way he would never think to attack Volodymyr Zelensky or Mahmoud Abbas or even the Iranian mullahs.

While backing Ukraine allows Democrats to virtue signal about their love of "democracy," turning on Israel allows them to appease the growing anti-Western sentiment of their base. It's only going to get worse in the coming years.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books – the most recent, "Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent." His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. 

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