Biden is wasting his time talking about two states, and not just because the Palestinians have repeatedly demonstrated that they will never agree to such a deal. What he won’t acknowledge is that the push for a ceasefire is not motivated by a desire for peace but implicit support for Hamas’s right to “resist” Israel and thereby pursue its destruction.

Biden has sought to appease the left by forcing the entire government to adopt the woke diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) catechism that grants a permission slip to antisemitism by labeling Israel and Jews as “white” oppressors of “people of color.” But he fails to understand that the forces he was mollifying believe Israel to be an illegitimate state and oppose peace. And the more he tries to navigate between their antipathy for Israel and his own desire to oppose Hamas, the more he will undermine Israel’s efforts to defend itself.

The Democrats’ political dilemma as the country moves deeper into the 2024 election cycle is real. The idea that Biden can convince both sides in the civil war going on among Democrats over Israel that he is with them is not a game that can continue indefinitely. Oct. 7 was an event that forced an administration trying to appease Hamas’s sponsor, Iran, and equivocal about its support for Israel into a laudable position of moral clarity. If it steps away from it, that will hurt, not help, him.