A woman holds a cut-out picture of hostages Shiri Bibas, 32, with Kfir Bibas, 9 months old, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and then killed in Gaza, on the day of their funeral procession, at a public square dedicated to hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem

Since October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas militants and Gazan civilians invaded Israeli communities — murdering entire families (and intentionally burning them alive), raping women, and abducting hostages — the global media and major NGOs have de facto erased Hamas’ central role in everything that followed.

The conflict’s root cause — and Hamas’ underlying responsibility for everything that has happened since — is routinely ignored. This is not an oversight. It’s a willful distortion.

Hamas’ Ideology of Rejection — From 1920 to Today

Hamas emerged from a tradition of Islamist Arab leadership in British Mandatory Palestine that has consistently rejected any compromise with Jewish sovereignty in any part of historic Israel.

From the 1920 and 1929 Arab pogroms and massacres of Jewish communities throughout British Mandatory Palestine, through the rejection of the 1937 Peel Commission and the 1947 UN partition plan, Palestinian Arab leaders have refused to share any land in historical Israel with a Jewish state.

Hamas’ founding charter in 1988 formalized its commitment to this rejectionism: declaring jihad as the only solution, rejecting Israel’s legitimacy, and committing to the “full and complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”

This ideology isn’t fringe. It defines the group’s  worldview. Hamas has rejected every peace offer — Madrid, Oslo, the Camp David frameworks, the 2000 and 2008 peace offers — intentionally undermining efforts at diplomacy, while reinforcing violence as the only acceptable strategy.

The UK Ultimatum: Morality Twisted into Complicity

Likely in response to the morally bankrupt “news” coverage of Gaza over the past 21 months and the realities of its own electorate, Britain’s Labour government has issued a one-sided ultimatum: Israel must meet demands — halt all hostilities in Gaza, abandon Jewish sovereignty in Judea & Samaria — or the UK will prematurely recognize a Palestinian state (with borders, governance, currency, etc. of this supposed new state all undefined).

There is no reciprocal demand on Hamas. The genocidal terror group is under zero pressure to disarm, release hostages, or relinquish power. This UK policy explicitly externalizes all responsibility onto Israel, absolving Hamas. It’s like refusing to blame the Nazis for the deaths that occurred in World War II, which was launched by Adolph Hitler’s aggression and invasion.

At a bare minimum here, morality demands reciprocity: any peace pathway must begin with the removal of Hamas and the rejectionist and deeply antisemitic ideology it exemplifies. Yet the UK’s policy ignores this completely. The consequence is moral inversion: terrorists rewarded, and their target for elimination is loaded with demands and obligations.

Media Starvation Campaign: Propaganda Dressed as Humanity

No doubt, given the timing of the UK’s one-sided ultimatum, the Hamas-started and Western media fueled narrative, which blames only Israel and largely ignores Hamas’s own role in Gaza’s food crisis — helped to incentivize UK Prime Minister Starmer’s announcement. The reality is that Hamas not only started this war, and thereby caused the suffering caused by it — but the terror group has also diverted or hoarded food-aid, hijacked its distribution, used the aid it confiscated to stay in power and fund its war efforts, and used Gazan civilians as bargaining chips.

Yet most of the “reporting” often falsely depicts Gazans as starving only because of Israel.

Setting aside how this mendacious media campaign and hyperfocus on Israel leads to Western ignorance or indifference to far worse situations and starvation occurring in places like Yemen and the Sudan (where at least 500,000 people have died from starvation in the last two years alone), when the media and NGOs shield Hamas from scrutiny and spotlight only Israel’s military actions, they distort moral agency.

When governments like the UK demand change only from Israel, they validate Hamas’s strategy: no disarmament, no surrender, no recognition of Israel — and indefinite war. Hamas is incentivized to keep fighting because the world is telling Hamas that its survival and mandate for perpetual war until Israel is destroyed are acceptable.

If Western democracies truly care about Palestinian lives, they must stop de facto sanctioning the ideology and the groups responsible for their suffering. Hamas’ rejectionist, genocidal platform — antisemitic, misogynist, homophobic — stands at the root of every death in this war. Its refusal to compromise is tangled with a history of more than a century of Palestinian Arab leadership rejection of Jewish peoplehood and right to self-determination that must dramatically change for peace to have a chance.

There is no path to peace without clarity: Hamas’ ideology and actions are the cause of the October 7th war and the suffering that has occurred in this war. Any attempt to “recognize Palestine” or negotiate peace without removing Hamas and ending the ideology behind it is simply handing power and legitimacy to both the rejectionist ideologies and the entities that have repeatedly ignited and perpetuated the violence in this region for over a century.

The moral path demands naming and addressing that reality — not trying to ignore or erase it.

Micha Danzig is a current attorney, former IDF soldier & NYPD police officer. He currently writes for numerous publications on matters related to Israel, antisemitism & Jewish identity & is the immediate past President of StandWithUs in San Diego and a national board member of Herut.

Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” on April 8, 2024. Photo: Screenshot

Influential talk show host Jon Stewart calls himself a “bad Jew.” But in a recent interview with controversial author Peter Beinart, he had far worse things to say about the Jewish State.

Over the course of 18 minutes, the two men took turns vilifying Israel as their audience cheered along.

Stewart repeatedly professed ignorance between jabs — as if shrugging through inflammatory claims about an active war absolves him of responsibility. It doesn’t. Especially not when he echoes fringe voices like Beinart’s, who argued that harshly criticizing Israel is a moral obligation — one that is for Israel’s own good.

Stewart accused Israel of “purposeful starvation” in Gaza, conveniently ignoring that Israel has facilitated an unprecedented volume of aid to an enemy population during wartime.

He and Beinart painted Israeli Jews as oppressors, carefully omitting who started the violence. Hamas was erased from the frame. The October 7 massacre? Never mentioned. Instead, Israel was blamed for its own trauma.

At one point, Stewart baited Beinart with the tired trope that “David became Goliath.” Beinart took it even further — invoking the Holocaust and drawing a grotesque moral parallel:

If we want to remember our histories, if we want to honor those in our families who were slaughtered, genocided and starved, our obligation is to care.

Who was Beinart citing as his moral compass? B’Tselem, an anti-Israel NGO that has falsely accused Israel of apartheid and supports the annihilationist BDS movement.

The entire thrust of the interview was clear: Israel brought this on itself.

“They’re the ones risking the Jewish state,” Stewart said. Not Hamas. Not Hezbollah. Not Iran. Israel.

In one of the most cringeworthy moments, Beinart declared: “How you treat people affects how they treat you.”

As if Hamas is just misunderstood. As if they’d stop murdering Jews if Israel were just nicer.

Is he really that naive? Has he learned nothing from 35 years of suicide bombings, kidnappings, and rocket fire?

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Two self-styled “truth-tellers” living in safety spent 18 minutes on @TheDailyShow calling Israeli Jews the oppressors – while ignoring who initiated the violence.@jonstewart and @peterbeinart erased Hamas from the frame and blamed Israel for its own trauma. pic.twitter.com/jH9tqhAeGp

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 29, 2025

Beinart then trotted out the false claim that Palestinians acted like Gandhi in 2018, and Israel responded with snipers. What he left out: those “marches” were Hamas-led operations involving grenades, fence breaches, firebombs, and arson kites.

That isn’t nuance. That’s Hamas PR.

And then, in a moment of moral surrender disguised as insight, Stewart said: “If Jews need a Jewish state to feel safe, then humanity has failed.”

No, Jon. Jews don’t want to need a state. But history — and reality — have made it necessary.

This wasn’t journalism. It wasn’t moral clarity. It wasn’t even debate.

It was 18 minutes of finger-pointing. No Israeli voices. No accountability for Hamas. Just two self-righteous men tokenizing themselves on national TV.

Not journalism. Not justice. Just marketing for moral collapse.

The author is the Executive Director of HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

People walk on the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi

A number of attacks on Jewish individuals, institutions, or facilities took place in July. One report showed that pro-Hamas protests and violence in the US are directly supported by networks connected with the Chinese Communist Party. The arrest of a “free Palestine” activist in New York on the charge of burning 10 police vehicles, apparently as part of anti-immigration enforcement protests, also demonstrates the unity of various movements.

In a letter to the House Homeland Security Committee’s Counterterrorism and Intelligence subcommittee, the Jewish Federations of North America estimated the American Jewish community spends $765 million on security, or 14% of the annual budget for the average organization.

In the international sphere, a new report revealed the depth to which antisemitism in Britain has been normalized after October 7, 2023. Hate marches, threats of violence, cancellation of artists and musicians, harassment in academia and medicine, official neglect, and selective policing of Jewish counter-protestors, were all documented in detail. These attitudes are largely within the educated middle class and are propelled by DEI institutions that regard Jews as all purpose oppressors.

The normalization of anti-Israel views in the US and abroad has been fed and permitted by mainstream news platforms obsessed with tendentious views including The New York Times which continues to spotlight anti-Israel Jews. An analysis of headlines in the Times indicates most expressed sympathy with Palestinians and less than 10% with Israel.

Statements by the head of the BBC’s news department, Deborah Turness, in defense of a discredited documentary regarding the imaginary distinction between Hamas’ military and political wings reflected ignorance of both the facts and British law, but more significantly, a devotion to a tendentious framework that shaped reporting against Israel.

In another incident, a leaked BBC memo revealed instructions that “how much aid has crossed into Gaza is irrelevant” and that broadcasters should say the current distribution system, which cuts off Hamas theft and profiteering, doesn’t work.

Negotiations continued in July between the Trump administration and various universities regarding responses to antisemitism, DEI and hiring practices, and funding. Columbia University reached a settlement with the government that would will see $400 million in Federal funding and access to future funding restored in exchange for banning race based quotas and DEI statements in admissions, increased transparency surrounding admissions, hiring, and foreign gifts. The university will pay $200 million to the Federal government and another $21 million to Jewish faculty, students, and custodial staff to settle civil rights violations. The university did not admit to wrongdoing.

There will be no changes to shared governance, which places pro-Hamas faculty in control of university policies particularly with regard to pedagogy, and no consent decree involving Federal supervision. But a university administrator will make reports to an outside arbitrator, and disciplinary proceedings will be moved from faculty control to the administration. The IHRA definition of antisemitism was adopted, a mask ban implemented, and the university promised to expand Title VI and Title VII supervision and antisemitism training from outside groups.

In an obviously related development, Columbia announced the expulsion, suspension, and degree revocations affecting over 70 students involved in the spring 2024 encampments and building takeovers. Barnard College also reached a settlement with Israeli and Jewish students who had alleged the school had faced “pervasive discrimination.”

Columbia’s concessions were also motivated in part by embarrassing revelations from leaked text messages that acting president Claire Shipman had complained about an outspoken Jewish trustee, Shoshana Shendelman, whom she accused of being a “mole” working against the school, and suggested hiring an “Arab.”

Reports late in the month suggested Harvard was considering a similar deal with the government, with fines up to $500 million. In moves that signaled Harvard’s acquiescence to Federal demands, the university suddenly dismantled all of its DEI and associated websites. It was unclear whether this simply moved or renamed existing units or represented structural changes.

Harvard’s efforts came as university president Alan Garber again warned that Federal actions including the higher endowment tax could cost the university $1 billion a year. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has also called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Harvard’s disclosures to bondholders, alleging massive overvaluation of its investments in private equity. A Federal investigation that found Harvard had violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students increased pressure further, as did comments from US Education Secretary Linda McMahon that the finding jeopardized Harvard’s accreditation.

With all eyes on the headline cases, universities have begun to rapidly adapt to the new realities. One change being made by universities is increased hiring of Title VI coordinators to handle civil rights complaints. The move promises more middle and upper level managers of the sort which have systematically disregarded Jewish students and supported their attackers. In one July example, a lawsuit filed by an Israeli Harvard student against the university detailed the abuse he received at the hands of fellow students and the university’s support for his attackers.

More substantively, the University of California system has banned student governments from boycotting Israel. The decision cited specific guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health regarding eligibility for grants. UCLA also agreed to pay Jewish plaintiffs $6 million to settle discrimination complaints regarding pro-Hamas protests that barred their full access to campus. As part of the settlement the university entered into a permanent consent decree forbidding it from excluding Jews from any part of campus.

During the summer break anti-Israel faculty members have been vocal regarding their antipathies. Other faculty continue to leverage their authority to make statements regarding Gaza and the Trump administration’s approach to higher education. The impact of faculty antisemitism was noted in a lawsuit against Stanford University by an Israeli post-doctoral research alleging that his supervisor subjected him to a hostile work environment, permitted his research to be sabotaged by a research assistant, and then terminated him on false charges.

A new survey of faculty purported to show that only a small minority (3%) of US faculty members could be considered fundamentally antisemitic but a larger number (54%) regarded Israel as an “apartheid state.” Most appear concentrated in Middle Eastern, gender, and ethnic studies. An overwhelming majority of faculty characterized themselves as liberal, and regard climate change and President Trump as existential threats.

Elsewhere, the International Sociological Association suspended the membership of the Israeli Sociological Society in solidarity with the Palestinians and of “failure to condemn genocide in Gaza.” The association also offered a statement in solidarity with Iran and condemning the “escalating military aggression carried out by the governments of Israel and the United States against Iran, which has affected the lives of ordinary citizens of Iran” and which “represents a violation of international law.”

Similarly the European Association of Social Anthropologists announced guidelines for implementing its BDS policies. The group pledged to “not collaborate with Israeli academic institutions until Israel complies with International Law and International Humanitarian Law and ends the occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” but claimed that “motion targets collaborations with academic institutions, however it does not per se target individuals, even those based at Israeli institutions. In this regard, it cannot be considered discriminatory.”

While K-12 education is in recess for the summer, a variety of reports including from mainstream sources have noted the sector’s growing anti-Israel radicalism, notably in teachers’ unions.

After a carefully orchestrated campaign by activists, the National Education Association (NEA) voted at its annual representative meeting to officially cut ties with the ADL and to stop using any of its consultants, programming, or materials, citing anti-Palestinian bias and the need to promote “liberatory education.” The group also accused Israel of “genocide” and ‘ethnic cleansing,” and demanded an end to US support.

The “DroptheADL” campaign was created by several academics including those associated with the “Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism” and anti-Israel activists in the K-12 space. The move was condemned by Jewish groups, but endorsed by several local NEA branches. The decision was later overturned by the group’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

The NEA’s structural antipathy towards Jews, however, was demonstrated in its 2025 handbook which discusses the “12 million victims of the Holocaust from different faiths” without mentioning Jews, plans to “educate members and the general public about the history of the Palestinian Nakba,” and “use existing digital communication tools to educate members about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.” After being exposed, the document was removed from the NEA website. Archived versions remain available.

In another sign of growing radicalism, the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy in New York. Observers note that the union was responding to Mamdani’s radicalism and his promise to end any mayoral oversight of the city’s schools, a long-time sticking point in relations between the union and the city.

The problem of antisemitism disguised as “anti-Zionism” in Massachusetts public schools had been highlighted by a series of hearings which exposed the hostility of unions and their leaders to Israel and to Jews. The efforts have now culminated in a new report documenting antisemitic incidents and hate crimes within Commonwealth schools. The California Teachers Association, at the urging of “CTA for Palestine,” has also expressed its opposition to a bill to combat antisemitism and discrimination in K-12 education, claiming that it is censorship, and urged its members to lobby instead for “liberated ethnic studies.”

The impact in K-12 education has been seen in lawsuits against Seattle public schools which allege a Jewish student had to hide in a locked classroom to avoid mobs of her peers. Another suit alleges a Virginia private school promoted Hitler as a “strong historical leader,” hung Palestinian flags in the school, and expelled Jewish students who complained.

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a version of this article was originally published.