The US's unrealistic demands of Israel

 Ed Morrisey:

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their foreign-policy team spent the last eleven months of handcuffing Israel in its war after Hamas' October 7 massacre and atrocities. For the past nine months, the Biden-Harris administration and other Western nations have demanded more and more concessions from Benjamin Netanyahu for a cease-fire and a hostage deal, painting him as the main obstacle to peace. 

Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, it's slowly dawning on the Biden-Harris team that terrorists lie and have no real interest in a "two-state solution." First, however, we have to get through some it's-Israel's-fault excuses:

Officials cited two main reasons for the pessimism. The ratio of Palestinian prisoners that Israel must release to bring Hamas-held hostages home was a major sticking point—even before the U.S.-designated terrorist group killed six hostages, including an American citizen. And the two-day attack on Hezbollah with explosive pagers and walkie-talkies—followed by Israeli airstrikes—has made the possibility of all-out war much more likely, complicating diplomacy with Hamas.

Another problem is that, according to Biden administration officials, Hamas makes demands and then refuses to say “yes” after the U.S. and Israel accept them. The intransigence has severely frustrated negotiators, who increasingly feel the militant group isn’t serious about completing an agreement. 

Emphasis mine. It has been crystal clear since the start of the conflict that Hamas wasn't negotiating in good faith, especially after they began torpedoing the first hostage exchanges. That's what makes this addendum particularly repellent:

Critics have also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sabotaging the process, partly in an effort to appease the hard-right flank of his governing coalition.

If Netanyahu accepted the concessions proposed by Hamas only to have Hamas reject them, how does that make Netanyahu the saboteur? How does that appease the "hard-right flank" of his Cabinet? This is nothing more than smearing an ally's political leader that the current administration dislikes by shifting the blame for terrorists onto their victims. 

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The Biden administration is pushing a policy that will not work.  They should be helping Israel destroy Hamas and Hezballah.  Both are made up of genocidal religious bigots who want to remove Israelis from their ancestral lands.  Israelis have been there for over 3000 years.  Hamas and Hezballah are newcomers to that land.