Throughout the ongoing conflict in Gaza, it has often seemed that much of the world, including the U.S., imposed greater expectations and higher standards on Israel than on Hamas, despite Hamas' murderous terrorist acts being solely responsible for sparking the conflict.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken just acknowledged that the global "public pressure" on Israel to meet those higher standards allowed Hamas to dodge accountability and refuse to agree to negotiated deals without much criticism, according to Breitbart.

In other words, the disparate expectations of acceptable conduct imposed on Israel in comparison to Hamas, including by the U.S., gave the latter license to continue misbehaving in terms of continuing to hold hostages or walking away from ceasefire agreements.

"Perception" of "daylight" between Israel and U.S. encouraged Hamas to keep fighting

Sec. Blinken recently sat for a wide-ranging interview with New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro, and that lengthy conversation inexorably wound its way through numerous other conflicts and crises around the globe to eventually focus on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

At one point, Blinken addressed what he viewed as the "major impediments" to ending the conflict that "drives Hamas" to continue fighting, and said, "One has been whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel -- we’ve seen it -- Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages."

"And so there are times when what we say in private to Israel, where we have a disagreement, is one thing, and what we’re doing or saying in public may be another," he continued. "But that’s in no small measure because, with this daylight, the prospects of getting a hostage-and-ceasefire deal over the finish line become more distant."

Hamas "pulled back" from agreements when they saw "Israel under pressure"

Following some back-and-forth over Israel's much-maligned offensive into the Hamas stronghold of Rafah, Blinken said, "I think the question we had was: How can we most effectively both shape the conflict but also bring -- bring an end to the conflict? And the focus on getting a ceasefire/hostage agreement was what was in our estimation the quickest and most durable way to get an end."

"And as I said, Hamas -- one -- when they saw Israel under pressure publicly, they pulled back," he admitted. "The other thing that got Hamas to pull back was their belief, their hope that there’d be a wider conflict -- that Hezbollah would attack Israel, that Iran would attack Israel, that other actors would attack Israel, and that Israel would have its hands full and Hamas could continue what it was doing."

"So we’ve worked very hard to make sure that that didn’t happen," the secretary added. "Part of that was making sure that Israel had what it needed to defend itself, to deter broader aggression."

In NYT interview, SecState Blinken acknowledges that Hamas pulled back from agreements in ceasefire-hostage deal talks whenever there was there was “public daylight” and a perception that “pressure was growing on Israel” by the U.S. pic.twitter.com/QMaWLvCy16

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 5, 2025

Where is the global pressure against Hamas?

A few moments later in the interview, following more criticism of Israel's actions by the reporter, Sec. Blinken somewhat surprisingly put into words what many observers have been thinking about the different standards that have been applied to the two parties engaged in the deadly and destructive conflict in Gaza.

"One of the things that I’ve found a little astounding throughout is that for all of the understandable criticism of the way Israel has conducted itself in Gaza, you hear virtually nothing from anyone since October 7th about Hamas," Blinken said.

"Why there hasn’t been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender -- I don’t know what the answer is to that," he continued. "Israel on various occasions has offered safe passage to Hamas’s leadership and fighters out of Gaza. Where is the world -- where is the world in saying, yeah, do that, end this, stop the suffering of people that you’ve brought on?"

"Now, again, that -- it doesn’t absolve Israel of the way of its actions in conducting the war," the secretary added. "But I do have to question how it is we haven’t seen a greater sustained condemnation and pressure on Hamas to stop what it started and to end the suffering of people that it initiated."