Give credit where due, but don’t expect the Left to suddenly put aside its maniacal anti-Semitism any time soon. World leaders from the UN to the Vatican to even some of Israel’s Western allies have called for a cease-fire in Gaza. In some cases, they have demanded a unilateral cease fire, or at least conveniently leaving Hamas’ 16-year missile and rocket campaign against Israel unspoken in the demand.

So it is notable indeed to have Hillary Clinton stand up in this moment and say YGBKM. Or at least call out those leaders as idiots, in somewhat more diplomatic terms:

WATCH: @NorahODonnell moderated a bipartisan discussion Thursday with former U.S. Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and @HillaryClinton.

On the Israel-Hamas war, @HillaryClinton said, “People who are calling for a ceasefire now do not understand Hamas. That is not… pic.twitter.com/WUWYRW6uOz

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 29, 2023

On the Israel-Hamas war, @HillaryClinton said, “People who are calling for a ceasefire now do not understand Hamas. That is not possible.”

She also said Israel has a “right to defend itself” against the terrorist militant group Hamas and that they have an “obligation to limit civilian deaths and casualties of all kinds.”

Don’t be too surprised. Clinton has generally been good on Israel, even if she has managed to get the rest of the region wrong. (Don’t forget that Clinton helped author the disaster in Libya through her own and Barack Obama’s ignorance of the effect it would have on radical Islamist terror, and touched off a massive refugee crisis that still rages in Europe.) The Jerusalem Post recalls Clinton’s tough stand on both Hamas and Fatah in the 2014 war, where outside pressure forced Israel to accept yet another worthless cease-fire:

“They’re trapped by their leadership, unfortunately,” Clinton said of the Palestinians during an interview with Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

“It’s a two-pronged trapping. They have leadership that is committed to resistance and violence. Their actions are geared towards getting newer and better missiles to launch at Israel instead of saying, ‘Hey, let’s try to figure out how we’re going to make your lives better.'”

Clinton also appeared on Charlie Rose’s popular talk show, which airs nationally on PBS. She told Rose that the Israeli response to the constant rocket fire from Gaza was appropriate.

“The Israelis are absolutely right in saying that they can’t just sit there and let rockets rain down,” Clinton told Rose. “They have a missile defense system which is working well but that can’t be certain. Now there are drones being launched from Gaza.”

That was nine years ago, and the aerial attacks never really stopped. Neither have the annihilationist policies in both Hamas and Fatah, but especially Hamas. (Fatah’s just a little more subtle about it.) The pattern of allowing Hamas to start wars and then use civilian populations as shields to get Israel to stop responding, and generally willing shields at that, have produced nothing except more and deadlier attacks on Israel. Not a dime of the aid showered on Hamas for these “cease fires” by the same useful idiots has gone to building peace and prosperity in Gaza, but has only served to make Hamas deadlier for their next round of fundraising off the bodies of dead Jews.

And now we have the same useful idiots trying the same failed policies to protect Hamas and the civilian population that supports them in annihilating Israel. What’s different this time — except for the exposure of jihadi depravity in Hamas’ massacre in southern Israel? And why haven’t these same voices demanded a cease-fire from Hamas during the last nine years of missile and rocket attacks, and threatened to cut off their aid? Those rockets and missiles are fired at Israeli civilian population centers with no discretion whatsoever, and only Israel’s very expensive Iron Dome defense system kept civilian casualties under control. For sixteen years.

New rule: If you weren’t demanding a cease-fire and threatening to withhold aid on October 6, you don’t get to call for a cease-fire on October 8 or any time after. In fact, you should really take advantage of a very good moment in time to keep your mouth shut.

Cease-fires with terrorists don’t work. The last sixteen years has made that abundantly clear, especially in Gaza. Demanding that Israel refrain from fighting a war that its enemy keeps provoking is tantamount to demanding that the Israelis surrender their country to the Iranian-funded terrorists and serve themselves up for the slaughter, either slowly or instantly. The only way to end this war is with Hamas’ destruction or complete surrender, and that choice belongs to the Gazans.

And that choice is now upon them in Gaza City:

Israeli tanks and infantry pushed into the outskirts of Gaza City on Monday and blocked one of the main roads connecting the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the south, witnesses said, in a major advance that appeared aimed at encircling the enclave’s biggest population center.

The push came three days after Israeli ground troops moved into Gaza, marking an escalation of its efforts to eliminate Hamas militants who on Oct. 7 killed some 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 220 in a series of attacks inside Israel.

Hamas complained that the IDF attacked a car carrying civilians and flying a white flag. The IDF replied that they’re not falling for the banana-in-the-tailpipe gag this time:

A witness traveling north on Gaza’s Saladin Road on Monday said he encountered two Israeli tanks and a bulldozer in an agricultural area southeast of Gaza City called Juhor ad-Dik. One of the tanks fired on a taxi that had approached with a white flag on its hood and was trying to turn around, according to the witness and video footage. Residents said the tanks later left the area.

An Israeli military spokesman, Maj. Nir Dinar, said soldiers have no way of knowing who is a militant or a civilian, and they all use the same cars.

“The IDF was not shown any proof that this is a civilian car and there’s no information on who is inside,” Dinar said. “Terrorists use civilian infrastructure like cars. They don’t have tanks or military jeeps.”

The IDF warned civilians to evacuate the area three weeks ago. Over the weekend, they repeated those warnings and declared the entire northern Gaza area a battlefield. Given that Hamas doesn’t wear uniforms or insignia on their persons or on their vehicles, the responsibility for civilian casualties belongs entirely to Hamas, especially as the initiator of a terrorist war of annihilation.

Israel has refused to play this game on Hamas’ terms, having learned their lesson the hardest way possible. The rest of the world should stop demanding that Israel commit suicide, and perhaps Hillary Clinton might force these moral idiots to rethink their stupidity. I don’t say this often, but kudos to Clinton.

Update: Hamas has now released a hostage video, trying to leverage Israeli opinion into ending the war. Three Israeli women reciting claims that Benjamin Netanyahu has committed war crimes and demanding a cease-fire:

In the video, which was released on Hamas’s social networks and described as “a number of Zionist prisoners held by Al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government,” the women accuse the prime minister of failing to act on October 7 to stop the Hamas massacre and now failing to rescue the hostages by enacting a ceasefire. …

“Hello, Bibi Netanyahu,” says the woman in the middle. “We have been in Hamas captivity for 23 days. Yesterday, there was a press conference with the families of the hostages. We know that there was supposed to be a ceasefire. You were supposed to release all of us. You made a commitment to release all of us.”

Netanyahu has already responded:

Netanyahu responded to the video, releasing a statement in which he addressed the women by name. “This is a cruel psychological manipulation by Hamas and ISIS,” he said. “We embrace the families. We are doing everything to bring all the captives and missing individuals back home.”

Not for nothing, but let’s also note that this video itself is a war crime. Hamas claims that this is a military operation, not an attack on civilians, and yet they are using civilians to manipulate a supposed military confrontation. Given the despicable barbarities already committed by Hamas and Gazans in launching this war, this war crime is only a minor point — but it completely undermines claims made by Hamas spokesmen of late that they never targeted civilians. If that were the case, they would have released the women and children they kidnapped rather than manipulate them for political purposes. This is the definition of terrorism.

Update: I’m not including the video because I don’t want to do Hamas’ work. The Jerusalem Post has a link to the video, I believe, if you want to see it. (Also: updated the previous paragraph to extend my thoughts and corrected grammar in the headline update.)