On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that the Jewish state needs to fully occupy the Gaza Strip.

While critics see this as an overreach, Israel is left with little choice when it comes to exterminating Gaza’s governing body: the terrorist group Hamas. Israel has tried to make peace with the people group somewhat misnamed the Palestinians. It has even tried to implement a two-state solution, which Palestinian leaders don’t want because it legitimizes Israel. As yet another olive branch, in 2005, the Israeli government moved its citizens who were living in Gaza and rehomed them in Israel, giving the Gazans a chance to set up their own government and live freely.

In 2006, Hamas was voted into power, and no election has been held since. As David Manny of PJ Media aptly put it, “Gaza went from being a potential model for Palestinian self-rule to an Iranian-funded weapons depot. Overnight. For every inch Israel gave, they received rockets, tunnels, and indoctrination camps for children holding toy rifles, while chanting death to Jews. Greenhouses became weapons factories. Hospitals became missile silos. Every inch of Gaza was turned into a future battlefield.”

Israel’s withdrawal and Hamas’s seizing control eventually led to the worst terrorist attack on the Jews since the Holocaust during World War II. On October 7, 2023, more than 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered by invading Hamas terrorists, and 250 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Yet it’s Israel that’s being accused of genocide and creating an apartheid state. The leftists of the world see Israel as the invader and usurper that kicked out the native Palestinians when Israel became a country in 1948. They argue that Jews weren’t native. In truth, God gave the land to them thousands of years ago, and it’s a constant pattern that they have constantly been forced out.

Left-wing-run countries such as France and the UK recently decided to recognize a Palestinian state. So, if Hamas attacks a Western ally, killing hundreds, but claims to be the victim, it gets recognized as a country by other supposed allies?

That’s exactly the message received and trumpeted by Hamas Politburo member Ghazi Hamad. “The powerful blow that was delivered to Israel on Oct. 7 has yielded three very important historic achievements,” he claimed. “First of all, it brought the Palestinian cause back. Why are all these countries recognizing Palestine now?” He answered his own rhetorical question: “The overall outcome of October 7 forced the world to open its eyes to the Palestinian cause, and to act forcefully in this respect.”

Kill Israelis, get state recognition.

To be clear, Hamas is losing this war. The terrorists are running out of money and relying on useful idiots and left-wing legacy media (but I repeat myself) to run interference and continue to paint Israel as the villain in this whole affair. Hamas’s latest attempt at garnering sympathy was an overt propaganda campaign to gain sole control over the food aid coming into Gaza. With the help of the United Nations, Hamas had been making its people pay for the aid and receiving a cut of the money to continue funding its war operations. The U.S. and Israel undercut this operation by establishing a new aid organization that was successfully getting food to the people of Gaza free of charge. Hamas constructed a narrative of famine, and The New York Times published a misleading picture of a skeletal Palestinian child who suffers from cerebral palsy, which caused his emaciated appearance.

Hamas is also instigating stampedes at aid sites and, in some cases, even shooting its own people while they try to get aid. All so they can blame Israel.

Over the weekend, Hamas posted pictures of starving Israeli hostages in terror tunnels, one even digging his own grave. Yet, according to the narrative, Israel is still to blame because of famine and “lack of aid.” The aid isn’t lacking — bad actors are throwing wrenches in the gears.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board poses the question, “Why should Hamas give up when Israel is under massive international pressure?” In fact, why shouldn’t Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank strive for complete victory if the international community is willing to play defense for their Islamist goals?

Those goals include the annihilation of Israel as a country, with a Palestinian state as the launching point. To Israel, this is an existential threat.

This is what has led Prime Minister Netanyahu to seek the full occupation of the Gaza Strip. Israel can no longer afford not to control it. A high-level discussion occurred yesterday regarding his request, and the Israeli Security Cabinet will make its decision on Thursday.