The brutal Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, left some 1,200 dead. I never would have predicted that, two years later, Hamas would continue to imprison hostages, refuse to release the bodies of dead detainees and still be rewarded with increasing recognition of a Palestinian state.

Terrorists proudly documented their brutality for the world to see.

“The astonishing fact was that at more than thirty locations, more than 3,000 Hamas fighters, along with numerous Palestinian civilians, had broken through the fence between Israel and Gaza,” Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst wrote of that day in his book, “Black Saturday: An Unfiltered Account of the October 7th Attack on Israel and the War in Gaza.”

“Hamas gunmen were going door-to-door, systematically executing civilians. In some homes, grenades were thrown into living rooms and bedrooms. In others, children were shot in front of their parents, their bodies disfigured. Terrified residents clung to their bomb shelter doors as militants fired on the handles,” Yingst wrote of Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. “When they were unsuccessful at breaching the rooms, Hamas burned houses down, reducing the people inside to ash after they suffocated from the smoke. Those not immediately killed were kidnapped and taken hostage into Gaza.”

At Harvard, pro-Palestinian students jumped into action with a statement that held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.” Which, in America, used to be known as blaming the victims.

Meanwhile, progressive activists turned big-name university quads into their own private camping grounds, classrooms were occupied and scholarship took a holiday. To their shock, many Jewish students faced virulent antisemitism at institutions they thought would shield them.

College administrators got sucked into the controversy. Within the year, three university presidents — Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Columbia University’s Minouche Shafik and the University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill — resigned.

Since the initial shock of the worst violence against Jews since the Holocaust, the international community’s focus sadly has moved from shock and revulsion at what Hamas planned and executed to a condemnation of Israel for defending itself.

During September’s United Nations General Assembly, dozens of delegates walked out during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scorching address, in which he observed, “Much of the world no longer remembers Oct. 7.”

Even stalwarts are feeling the heat. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a supporter of Israel, recently argued, “Israel has exceeded the limits of proportionality.”

What does that even mean? Foundation for Defense of Democracies Executive Director Jonathan Schanzer wondered.

Schanzer told me that he cannot remember when international pressure to end a conflict was wielded against the actors who did not initiate hostilities.

“The Israelis seem to have a unique fate,” Schanzer said. “It seems like actually every time the Israelis fight back against their aggressors, within a short amount of time, they are pressured to stop fighting.”

A recent New York Times/Siena poll captures the change in public sentiment. In 2023, nearly half of Americans sympathized more with Israelis, while 1 in 5 sympathized more with Palestinians. Now 34% sympathize more with Israelis and 35% more with Palestinians.

Palestinian deaths in the Israel-Hamas war had exceeded 65,000 in September, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The group’s body count conveniently does not distinguish between citizens and terrorists.

Apparently, that’s by design. In August, senior Hamas member Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera, “The initiative by several countries to recognize a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of Oct. 7.”

Which now sounds a lot like “Mission accomplished.”

As far as Hamas leadership is concerned, the cost in Palestinian lives was worth it, Brian Katulis, senior fellow of the Middle East Institute, told me.

President Donald Trump, however, wants to end the killing by ending the war in Gaza. And that changes everything.

Monday at the White House, Trump and Netanyahu announced a 20-point plan to end the war that includes the immediate release of “all hostages, alive and deceased,” amnesty for Hamas members who agree to disarm, and, following the hostage release, freedom for 250 prisoners and 1,700 Gazans detained after Oct. 7, 2023.

As of this writing, Hamas has not yet signed on.

If Hamas rejects the deal, Trump told Netanyahu, “Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do.”