POLITICS: Feckless White House failed to fight terror proxies — and now six more hostages are dead

In March, President Biden said that if Israel invaded Rafah, the last major Hamas holdout in southern Gaza, it would cross a “red line” that threatened US aid.

Asked about his statement shortly after, Vice President Kamala Harris added to ABC News, “We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake . . . And so we’ve been very clear that it would be a mistake to move into Rafah with any type of military operation.”

Now we know the tragic cost of the Harris-Biden administration’s dithering: Six dead hostages, including one Israeli-American.

Some families of the dead are blaming this loss on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to secure a cease-fire, and no one can question their sorrow or resolve.

But Hamas has shown again and again that it wasn’t negotiating in good faith. The terrorists refused to return hostages unless Israel essentially surrendered, pulled out of Gaza and allowed Hamas to remain in power. 

The “huge mistake” here was not failing to capitulate to Hamas, it is the US criticizing Israel rather than joining the fight.

The Biden-Harris administration could have told Iran: Force your proxy to give up hostages or pay a steep price — financially and militarily. 

And told Hamas in no uncertain terms: Give up the hostages or we help Israel root you out, and pressure Qatar to stop sheltering your leader. 

The very least would have been to give Israel a free hand to try to rescue its people.

We saw the heroics the IDF was capable of in June, when it freed Noa Argamani and three other hostages alive out of Nuseirat. 

That these bodies were found in Rafah shows that Israel was absolutely right that Hamas despicably hid hostages among Gazan civilians, gambling that campus protesters and hesitant governments would stay Israel’s hand.

Harris and Biden played right into Hamas’ ploy, threatening Israel to appease the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party. They put the electoral votes of Michigan before what was right.

We don’t know how many hostages remain alive in Gaza. As another sign of how evil Hamas is, it won’t say. 

But the way forward could not be more clear: The real “red lines” are for Iran and Hamas. Give up the hostages that are left, or face the wrath of the United States.