After choosing to be silent about the Hamas attacks on Israel (and there are reports of Hezbollah making incursions into Israel now), the usual suspects have been shamed into making mealy-mouthed statements recognizing that the attacks were immoral and or/unwise.

But their real point remains the same as it ever was: it is Israel that is ultimately responsible and the Palestinians, who have engaged in decades of terrorism, are the real victims.

Bernie Sanders just joined the growing list of “moral equivalencers.”

Atrocious statement, par for the course https://t.co/qxDgVJOWkq

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) October 11, 2023

Notice how Sanders’ primary concern–he, after all, begins with lamenting the consequences of the attacks–is that a war has broken out in retaliation. He barely acknowledges the atrocities and goes straight to worrying about the effects of the war on those in the occupied territories.

I, too, feel bad for the price that non-military folk will pay in Gaza, but the responsibility for the suffering and death falls squarely on the Hamas leaders who were elected and supported by the majority of Gazans. It would be nice if Israel’s war against Hamas only harmed those directly responsible for Hamas’ policies, but that is not how war ever works.

Something tells me that Sanders wouldn’t have been quite so supportive of Germans during World War II, and he as with everybody else who has ever supported military action, chooses which civilians with which to overly sympathize.

Most of the civilian casualties occur due to the choices Hamas is making today. It chooses to violate the rules of war by using its own citizens as human shields, demanding that they remain in the war zone in order to create international outrage against Israel. Every civilian killed because Hamas demands their sacrifice for propaganda purposes is a Palestinian killed by Hamas, not Israel.

Israel’s only choice is to destroy Hamas, and Hamas is forcing them to do so by going through those human shields. The alternative is to allow Hamas to kill Israeli civilians with impunity.

Is that what Sanders wants? Apparently so.

There are times when we are forced to choose not between a good outcome and a bad one but which bad choice to make. This is one of those times.

Hamas has chosen this war. It has chosen how to fight it. It has chosen to put its citizens at risk. So it is responsible for the consequences.

Hamas official: “We made them think that Hamas was busy governing Gaza and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians…. All the while… Hamas was preparing for this big attack”

They don’t even pretend. What silly people western leftists are. pic.twitter.com/IVNXvvMU9y

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) October 11, 2023

Hamas is a government, not just a group of terrorists. A government whose ministers are openly admitting that they only to pretend to care about actual governing; instead, they exist to war on Israel, and only do that.

It must be destroyed.

The Allies chose the path of demanding unconditional surrender in World War II because the alternative was keeping the Nazis in power in some way. Israel must do the same. The time to negotiate with Hamas is over. Their atrocities mirror those of the Nazis, as do their goals. They should be treated just as harshly.

That the “Blame Israel First” caucus in the West has chosen to defend Hamas in any way is a moral stain on their souls.