Regardless of a cease-fire, Hamas – the Iranian-supported Palestinian terrorist group – must be pleased that so many Democrats in Congress see moral equivalence between its missile attacks on Israel and Israel defending itself in response.

Many Democrats openly criticize Israel and implicitly blame it for the deaths of Palestinians. At the same time, they refuse to condemn Hamas’ attacks. This indicates just how much the radical left has taken control of congressional Democrats.

Hamas’s Iranian sponsors are probably delighted.

Before the cease-fire announcement, there was no universal condemnation of Hamas’ terrorism by Democrats, including many Jewish members. They remained relatively silent.

Listening to most of them, you would have thought that Palestinian casualties resulted from Israeli aggression.

A few dared to condemn Hamas, including Senator Jacky Rosen, DNev., Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.

Gottheimer, Nadler and Rosen are Jewish.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he recognized Israel’s right to self-defense but was “deeply troubled” by the deaths of Palestinian civilians caused by Israeli airstrikes.

Most Democrats lost their voices when it came to Israel’s right to defend itself. Instead, they hedged their bets and urged a cease-fire, as did 28 Democratic senators.

Interestingly, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not join in the statement. However, his number two, Senate leader, Dick Durbin, D-Ill., did.

As far as I know, Schumer has not condemned Hamas and, as Senate Republicans charge in a TV ad, has been relatively silent on the issue. The Executive Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matt Brooks, went so far as to accuse him of putting his own "political interests above the interests of Israel and the Jewish community…."

It should be noted that Schumer is the first Jewish Senate majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history.

His muted reaction, and that of many of his Democratic colleagues, sends a powerful message to Hamas and Iran – they are winning the battle to divide Democrats and dimmish their formerly universal support of Israel!

As evidence of Hamas’ inroads into American Democratic politics, Democrats have failed to criticize the blatant anti-Semitic anti-Israel attacks by the left-wing "Squad." Its members include Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar Rashida Tlaib, D-Minn. Cortez and Tiab are among the sponsors of a House resolution to block the $735 million sale of military weapons to Israel.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced a similar measure in the Senate.

The question is, why didn’t Democratic Congressional leaders hold press conferences condemning Hamas and defending Israel’s right to self-defense?

It seems that they have been intimidated by the Squad and the progressive left socialist members of their Party. They are afraid to criticize them – probably due to fear of being called racists or of being challenged in a primary.

A good example is House Democrats killing a Republican-sponsored bill to sanction those providing financial support to Hamas.

The thousands of Hamas missiles that rained down on Israel were likely made in Iran and paid for in good part with the $1.8 billion cash given to Iran by the ObamaBiden Administration.

Has anyone noticed how the Biden administration has made little or no mention of Iran during the current crisis?

The most likely reason is that it doesn’t want anything to interfere with its efforts to appease Iran by possibly canceling the economic sanctions imposed on it by the Trump administration so it can rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Former President Trump ended United States participation in 2018.

Give these developments, neither Iran nor Hamas have much to fear from the Biden Administration or Congressional Democrats. Israel and Jews around the world do.

The timidity of Democrats, including many Jewish Democrats, has emboldened Hamas and its supporters.

Such political cowardice has led to a rash of worldwide attacks against Jews, with New York and Los Angeles being the most recent examples in this country.

Clarence V. McKee is president of

McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations and training consulting firm in Florida.