The peace deal between Israel and Hamas, ending the two-year-long war that Hamas ignited with its sudden terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, is tepidly holding, thanks in large measure to the hostage and prisoner exchange.

Hamas finally gave up the 20 remaining living and innocent Israeli hostages it had been cruelly holding in exchange for hundreds of mostly Hamas militants Israel had imprisoned, often for violent crimes or terrorist acts. Meanwhile, Hamas is slowly returning the bodies of those Israeli hostages who died under their brutal imprisonment.

Few things provide greater moral clarity, exposing the lie that Hamas jihadis are “freedom fighters” against the supposed imperialist state of Israel. That clarity is seen in who it was that Israel released in order to get its innocent civilians returned home.

Among those Palestinians released from Israeli prisons, 250 were serving life sentences for murders, including some who killed Americans, like Iyad Fatafteh, who stabbed to death Kristine Luken back in 2010. Luken was visiting Israel for the Christmas holiday when Fatafteh attacked Luken and her friend. Fortunately, her friend survived. Yet Fatafteh is now a free man.

To make matters even worse, Fatafteh received a fat check from the Palestinian Authority (PA) for his services to the cause. The PA, which receives significant funding from Western donors, paid Fatafteh more than $200,000.

And Fatafteh’s story is not unique. According to the Israeli NGO, Palestinian Media Watch, which tracks the PA “pay for slay” program, these 250 murderous jihadis have been given nearly $70 million in cash payouts for their terrorism.

It’s bad enough that these killers are now freed and paid, but in all likelihood, they will once again engage in terrorist actions against Israel. That was the story of the mastermind behind the October 7 attack, Yahya Sinwar. He was among more than 1,000 freed Palestinian jihadis in a prisoner exchange back in 2011 — all for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

This is what Israel has gotten for negotiating with the PA. And to be clear, the primary reason Israel finds itself having to placate terrorists is due in large part to the West. Both the European Union and the U.S. have pressured Israel to capitulate to its sworn enemies and tormentors, all out of a misplaced conviction that the so-called Palestinians are the real victims.

While Hamas is currently weakened, it appears far from dead, especially from a geopolitical perspective. Much of the Western world has been deceived into believing that all Hamas and the PA want is a two-state solution whereby they can live peacefully alongside Israel. Simply put, the two-state solution is a fiction, a Western pipe dream that leftist elites have concocted as the ultimate fix to what they see as little other than a land dispute.

Meanwhile, Hamas exerts its control over Gaza as it hunts down and murders Palestinian rivals.

There is no moral equivalency between Hamas/Palestinian Authority and Israel. Only one side has a genocidal agenda, and if it weren’t for Israel’s superior military and economy, there would be no Jews in Israel.