Former President Barack Obama initially came out in strong support of Israel when it was attacked by 1,000 Hamas fighters last month, but he has been persuaded to withdraw that support after a backlash from his own foundation and others on the radical left. 

“I had a conversation with a group of you around this issue, and you were passionate and pushed me around some of the public statements I’d made,” Obama said at a gathering of the Obama Foundation Democracy Forum in Chicago.

Everyone wants ”an end to the killing, peaceful coexistence between two sovereign and free peoples,” he said, but people disagree on how to get there.

Obama also accused Israel of ignoring the "human costs" of war and said he was committed to a “two-state solution” and an end to “occupation.”

Simply unfair

Obama is ignoring the fact that Hamas's unprovoked attack showed unequivocally that it doesn't want "peaceful coexistence" and that the two parties' actions are not equal morally.

Hamas had a two-state solution in Gaza already: Israel withdrew from the area in 2005 and it was self-governed. The so-called suffering there before the war started was inflicted on it by Hamas taking money and materials meant to improve the people's lives and using it to make weapons and fund terror.

It simply isn't fair or accurate to say that Israel was "oppressing" Gaza; Hamas was doing that and blaming it on Israel.

If Obama is going to put Hamas and Gaza's statements at the same level of accuracy as Israel's, he will always get the conflict wrong.

Abrupt about-face

It's not surprising that Obama has quickly changed his tune, given that he really never had a good word to say about Israel during his presidency.

His words immediately after Hamas brutally murdered 1,400 Israelis were more uncharacteristic of him, as seen in this tweet:

All Americans should be horrified and outraged by the brazen terrorist attacks on Israel and the slaughter of innocent civilians. We grieve for those who died, pray for the safe return of those who’ve been held hostage, and stand squarely alongside our ally, Israel, as it…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 9, 2023

He's not the only left-wing Democrat to come out in support of Israel: former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said after Israel began to retaliate against Hamas that a ceasefire would be a bad idea because it would give Hamas time to regroup and hit Israel again.

Huge protest in DC

But far-left groups including think tanks and college campus groups have protested on behalf of Gazans and have tried to equate Gaza's "oppression" by Israel with the barbaric attacks by Hamas against the Israeli people.

There was a huge protest in Washington, D.C. involving thousands protesting for Gaza and the Palestinians.

Some of the protesters tried to climb the fence around the White House and sprayed graffiti on buildings and statues in the area.