Why does the left still go so easy on Hamas?

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The left across the West has a Hamas problem.

In their binary worldview of oppressors versus oppressed, many self-proclaimed progressives continued to refuse to call the Iran-backed militia that controls Gaza a terrorist organization – even in the wake of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust by Hamas militants who, on Oct. 7, massacred hundreds of Israeli civilians and boasted of their gruesome deeds on social media.

In their unwillingness to admit that everything is not black or white in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, these self-anointed champions of the underdog have equivocated, prevaricated and gone on the attack in attempts to “contextualize” the horror Hamas unleashed as the result of the “apartheid” regime Israel has imposed on Palestinians confined to the “open-air prison” that is the Gaza strip.

Ontario New Democratic MPP Sarah Jama this week resorted to an Orwellian-level distortion of reality with a statement that not only failed to condemn the Hamas attack that left more than 1,200 Israelis dead, but repeated the apartheid trope and called for an end to the “occupation of all Palestinian land.” It took repeated calls for her expulsion from the NDP caucus and public reproach by party Leader Marit Stiles for Ms. Jama to finally apologize for her comments.

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“To be clear, I unequivocally condemn terrorism by Hamas on thousands of Israeli civilians,” Ms. Jama said on the social platform X (formally known as Twitter). “I also believe that Israel’s bombardment and siege on civilians in Gaza, as was also noted by the United Nations, is wrong.”

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center deemed Ms. Jama’s act of contrition “much too little, much too late.” And it is understandable why. In demanding that Israel refrain from retaliating against Hamas outposts in Gaza, leftist politicians such as Ms. Jama engage in yet more intellectual dishonesty by calling for a ceasefire that would mostly benefit Hamas.

“Each conflict that Hamas has provoked with Israel has left Gaza worse off,” explained Dennis Ross in a piece for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Ross is a former U.S. national security official and Middle East envoy who served under five presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. “Hamas has regarded every ceasefire negotiated with Israel as an opportunity to buy time to rebuild its arsenal and get ready for the next round. Hamas is not a partner for peace; it is an agent of war and destruction.”

Hamas seeks the destruction of Israel, period. It does not want a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for that would require recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Though it has controlled Gaza since 2007, Hamas has spent billions in aid from abroad preparing for war and attacking Israel rather than improving the lives of the 2.3 million Palestinians in its charge.

“Aside from consolidating its control, Hamas’s main agenda for Gaza is building its own military infrastructure and arsenal,” Mr. Ross wrote. “It has constructed dozens of miles of underground tunnels – not to provide shelters for the people of Gaza but to protect its own fighters and weapons.”

Israel must be held accountable if it takes insufficient care to avoid civilian casualties when it bombs Hamas outposts. It should ease its “complete siege” of Gaza to ensure the civilian population has access to food and medicine. But make no mistake, Hamas bears primary responsibility for putting Palestinian civilians in harm’s way. And unless Hamas renounces violence and its militants surrender their arms, Israel has no choice but to destroy its military capabilities by force. Israel’s basic security is at stake, as is making sure that Oct. 7 never happens again.

Alas, the past week has seen countless left-wing politicians and their supporters across the West twist themselves into pretzels to avoid having to call a spade a spade. Progressive Democrats in the United States, Labour militants in Britain and Sumar politicians in Spain have put their ideology ahead of the evidence. It has been chilling to watch.

The Palme d’Or for prevarication goes to go to Jean-Luc Mélenchon – the leader of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), and third-place finisher in France’s 2022 presidential race – whose repeated refusals to call Hamas a terrorist organization after its brutal assault on Israel were shocking even for this onetime Trotskyist.

“Hamas unleashed an operation of war on Israel,” Mr. Mélenchon said on X. “We describe as war crimes what Hamas did on Israeli territory. We describe as war crimes what Israel is doing to the Gaza population. This charge of war crimes is much more serious than terrorism. It can be judged in international law. It goes beyond the battle between good and evil.”

Ms. Jama and Mr. Mélenchon both proved themselves unworthy of the public trust this week. Their anti-Israel bias has led them down a path of denial.