The intensification of the war in the north doesn’t mean that Israel can let its guard down elsewhere, and it is still trying to uproot Hamas in Gaza while preventing it from turning the West Bank into a launching pad for terrorist attacks. Amid other operations in the area, the IDF raided the offices of Al Jazeera in Ramallah, confiscated equipment, and ordered the branch of the news network to shut down for 45 days. Andrew McCarthy comments:

Al Jazeera is based in Qatar, a longtime backer of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas (the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch) and a close ally of Iran. The Biden administration nevertheless considers Qatar to be a “major non-NATO ally.” Naturally, Al Jazeera pushes anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda. As it must now confront West Bank jihadists in addition to other Iran-backed enemies in the multi-front war, Israel concluded that the Al Jazeera studio in Ramallah is being used for “incitement and support of terrorist activities” and that its broadcasts at this time are a threat to regional and Israeli security.

There is no international-law requirement in wartime that combatants give immunity to outlets for enemy propaganda.

Nevertheless, a Biden-Harris State Department spokesman declared that Israel’s “action is inconsistent with U.S. support for freedom of the press in the West Bank and all over the world.”

The gall here is breathtaking, even by Biden-Harris administration standards. As recounted in litigation that culminated in a Supreme Court ruling in June, the Biden-Harris White House and other administration officials have engaged in extensive, intimidating actions to induce social-media platforms to suppress reporting and commentary by its political opponents.

In a sense, the most successful negotiation with Hamas was the recent agreement securing the release of Edan Alexander, the last living hostage with a U.S. passport. Unlike those previously handed over, he wasn’t exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, and there was no cease-fire. Dan Diker explains what Hamas got out of the deal:

Alexander’s unconditional release [was] designed to legitimize Hamas further as a viable negotiator and to keep Hamas in power, particularly at a moment when Israel is expanding its military campaign to conquer Gaza and eliminate Hamas as a military, political, and civil power. Israel has no other option than defeating Hamas. Hamas’s “humanitarian” move encourages American pressure on Israel to end its counterterrorism war in service of advancing additional U.S. efforts to release hostages over time, legitimizing Hamas while it rearms, resupplies, and reestablishes it military power and control.

In fact, Hamas-affiliated media have claimed credit for successful negotiations with the U.S., branding the release of Edan Alexander as the “Edan deal,” portraying Hamas as a rising international player, sidelining Israel from direct talks with DC, and declaring this a “new phase in the conflict.”

Fortunately, however, Washington has not coerced Jerusalem into ceasing the war since Alexander’s return. Nor, Diker observes, did the deal drive a wedge between the two allies, despite much speculation about the possibility.