America’s support for Israel must not come at the price of backing Ukraine

Hamas’s heinous attack and the robust Israeli response serve as a useful reminder of well-known double standards on the activist left. In an echo of those US Republicans who are unable to see Ukraine’s defence against Russian aggression with any moral clarity – framing it instead as a ‘territorial dispute’ – some commentators have been reluctant to condemn Hamas’s terrorism, at least not without first appropriately ‘contextualising’ it.

The attack, however, also uncovered a more recent and worrying trope taking root on both sides of the political spectrum: the idea, implicit or explicit, that the United States can only focus on just one issue at a time. The Biden administration, keen to turn the page after the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan, has treated the Middle East as an afterthought. Hence the rushed withdrawal from Kabul and the reflexive effort to revive Obama-era Iran deal – even at the price of rattling traditional US allies in the region, or empowering Tehran to double down on its backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.