Hamas is prolonging the war because it doesn't want peace; Leftist activists are blind to this fact

When I see college students and otherwise uninformed leftists demonize Israel, it baffles me that no one recognizes what is plainly evident - Hamas is prolonging the war in Gaza by continuing to hold hostages and refusing to disarm. It's truly that simple.

Amid all the calls for ceasefires that are all over social media, the people championing a ceasefire have said absolutely nothing about releasing the hostages which is one of the primary causes behind the current war. Again, we see the same pattern play out - demonizing Israel for bad PR is more important than championing a strategy that would ACTUALLY end the current hostilities. You could tell something was wired wrong amongst these supporters when you started to see dozens upon dozens of uninformed activists tear down posters of Israeli hostages. The cognitive dissonance was so great it literally prompted people to tear down posters of kidnapped elderly and children because they thought it was either fake or propaganda.

What these activists don't comprehend is that Hamas is a terrorist group motivated by religious ideology. Peace is not their goal. A ceasefire is only interesting to them as a means to regroup and rearm. Because remember, a ceasefire by definition is temporary. A permanent ceasefire = peace treaty which Hamas has no interest in because they are of the deluded notion that the entire land should be under islamic rule.

For this reason, we are in completely different scenario from what we saw with the Germans and Japanese in WW2. Whereas they admitted defeat and surrendered, Hamas ideology not only is fine with fighting to the death (no matter how many Palestinian civilians die in the process), but it’s actually something they elevate as admirable. People in the West simply can’t process the mindset of a group like Hamas whose own leaders have said, in reference to Israel, “we love death the way you love life.” Hamas leaders have also suggested that 2 million dead Palestiians is a worthy sacrifice for the 'liberation of Jerusalem.'

With this mindset, it's clear Hamas sees this conflict as part of a broader war of liberation that by definition requires Israel to be eradicated. And so, leftist supporters who are blind to what Hamas is, inadvertently enable Hamas’s strategy of maximizing Palestinian casualties for propaganda purposes. They also, perhaps unknowingly, disseminate talking points and slogans that originate from Hamas themselves. Remember how quickly the 'All Eyes on Rafah' social media campaign took off... only to find out that's where Sinwar was? What a coincidence!

The reality is that if if Hamas surrendered and handed back the hostages today this would all be over. I suppose it’s easier to ignore this than to accept the reality that the elected leaders of the Palestinians themselves are prolonging the conflict by refusing to hand back the hostages and refusing to disarm.