Washington’s response to Hamas killing six Israeli hostages is proving a case study in Western elites hiding from reality. Hamas is a vicious terrorist group that killed 1,139 people and took 251 hostages in Israel on October 7, 2023. It recently executed six hostages in cold blood to prevent them from being rescued. 

The Biden-Harris administration — and nearly all Western elites — have avoided confronting Hamas’s vicious inhumanity and instead focused their anger on Prime Minister Netanyahu. This is the behavior of an out-of-touch elite class that simply can’t grasp reality.

Hamas is a clear, direct organization. It stands for the end of Israel. Its favorite slogan — echoed by all too many young westerners who have no concept of its moral meaning — is “from the river to the sea.” That slogan refers to a future in which no Israel exists and no Israeli lives. 

As key Hamas leader, Sheikh Iyyad Abu Funan, put it on October 13, 2015, “I want to swear on the Quran that not a single Jew will remain on this land.” Faced with this level of rhetorical and real viciousness, the Israeli government has decided Hamas must be decisively defeated.

This ultimately means hunting down every Hamas leader and fighter in all of Gaza. Since that operation requires fighting in urban areas surrounded by civilians — some of whom sympathize with Hamas — the need to minimize non-combatant casualties slows the war down and ultimately makes it more dangerous for civilians.

The Israelis are caught in a real dilemma. When they obey the West, take more time to be careful, and minimize civilian casualties, Hamas has more time to mobilize public opinion and stage mass rallies. It also has more time to rearm and mobilize more assaults on Israeli civilians.

Destroying Hamas will be painful and is necessary. Western elites and student activists have become what Lenin called “useful idiots.” He was referring to people who were gullible enough to believe communist totalitarian lies. In this case the useful idiots are buying into anti-Israel propaganda.

So, we now have hundreds of thousands of useful idiots trying to help Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. The aggressive, militant activism at, say, Columbia University is growing uncomfortable (and potentially dangerous) for Jewish students — or anyone who supports Israel’s right to defend itself. 

Britain’s new left-wing Labour government found moral purpose by cutting off 30 military contracts with Israel. Hamas executes six hostages, and the Labour Government’s answer is to punish Israel. This is the danger of useful idiots fooling themselves into supporting terrorism.

All the demands for a ceasefire are further illustrations of the modern West’s hypocrisy and fantasy. On Monday, President Biden said “No,” when asked if Mr. Netanyahu was doing enough to reach an agreement. The Biden-Harris mantra of trying to appease the useful idiots in the American left by publicly pressuring the Israeli government flies in the face of reality.

The fact is that Mr. Netanyahu accepted the Biden-Harris proposal on May 31 — and a second even more anti-Israeli proposal on August 16. The entire negotiating process has been driven by American pressure to appease Hamas at Israel’s expense. The Hamas response has simply been to hold out for more concessions. 

Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, blocked the ceasefire, not Mr. Netanyahu. Hamas’s leaders have been clear that they hope to have more attacks against Israel — and that they have no interest in a true ceasefire.

Ironically, while Mr. Biden and Vice President Harris are demanding a ceasefire, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday that Mr. Sinwar and others are being charged with terrorist activities for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

In an extraordinarily long indictment, the Department of Justice outlined that Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization since October 8, 1997. It seems as if the Biden-Harris White House and the Department of Justice’s New York office should coordinate better. Are we trying to appease Mr. Sinwar or lock him up? The Biden-Harris administration just keeps getting stranger and stranger.