What will happen if Hamas is allowed to win this war? If Hamas is permitted to accomplish what it intended by its mass murders, kidnappings and rapes? If the victims of these atrocities — the people of Israel and all countries fighting terrorism — lose? If the prospects for peace in the region and the Free World are seriously damaged? If the relationship between the US and Israel, and the loss of faith in the US as the guarantor of freedom, continues to be fractured? ...

If these are the outcomes of the current war, Hamas will be encouraged to repeat — as it promised it would “time and again”— its barbarisms of October 7, not only in Israel but in other Western nations, including our own. Why not? If a crime pays, it will be repeated. That is one reason why we punish crimes. President Joe Biden has said as much with regard to the Russian crimes against Ukraine. He has correctly warned that if Putin is allowed to benefit from his attack on Ukraine, he will be encouraged to attack other nations. Biden is right about that. Why hasn’t he said the same thing about Hamas?