Just a few weeks ago, it was widely thought that Israel and the terrorist group Hamas were nearing a deal to end the war in Gaza. In that deal, Hamas leadership would agree to go into exile, Israeli hostages would be freed from their hellish captivity and surrounding Arab nations could help fund the rebuilding of a more peaceful Gaza Strip.

That, at least, was the hope.

And then it all fell apart.

It fell apart for one simple reason: Hamas understands the West far better than the West understands Hamas. Hamas understands that if it forces the suffering of its own people, if it maximizes and even falsifies media coverage of that suffering, then the West will rehabilitate Hamas and grant it its demands. Hamas understands that Westerners are utterly ignorant to the true evil of Hamas, their willingness to multiply the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike, to starve their own citizens as well as Israeli hostages, to sacrifice Palestinian children by placing them in the line of fire, all for the cameras; Hamas understands that myopic and self-centered Westerners will simply project their own biases and values onto Hamas, thus granting them unearned innocence and sympathy; Hamas understands that the media would facilitate all of this, elevating a false oppressor/oppressed narrative above the truth.

And so it has gone. Over the past three weeks, international institutions like the United Nations, which has become a front group for Hamas, began announcing that mass starvation was affecting the Strip. Instead of then facilitating the entry of aid, the U.N. refused to allow in any aid accompanied by the Israeli military, specifically so that Hamas could loot it. Meanwhile, the media began blasting out pictures of starving Gazan children — many of whom were not suffering from malnutrition in the main, but from genetic diseases; the German newspapers Bild and Suddeutsche Zeitung reported this week that the media featured manipulated and staged photos from Palestinian photographers.

As a result, last week, the U.K., France and Canada, in an effort to demonstrate their supposed moral rectitude and to placate their large radical Muslim minorities, announced that they would forthwith support the creation of a Palestinian state. That announcement immediately scuttled the impending deal between Israel and Hamas, giving Hamas what it wanted on a silver platter. This conclusion was openly touted by Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, who bragged, “The initiative by several countries to recognize a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7.”

How untouchable does Hamas feel, thanks to the moral imbecility of the media, international institutions and politicians in the West? Last week, they released a video of hostage Evyatar David, worn down to skin and bones, digging his own grave. They knew that their friends in the international institutions would say nothing, that the media would bury its coverage and that politicians would utter empty words while continuing to pressure Israel. And they were right.

Hamas has the West’s number. And the West continues to fall for their every trick, because too many in the West, on a fundamental level, do not understand their enemies — or, worse, believe that the only true enemy is Western chauvinism or intransigence. For now, this witlessness may have seemingly mild consequences. But stupidity always comes at a price. And for stupidity on a scale this grand, the price will be bloody.

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