Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid said on Monday that Israel cannot — and should not — root out every member of the terrorist group Hamas as it begins to implement the provisions of the peace deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hamid was speaking with CNN anchor Brianna Keilar about the still-unfolding situation in Gaza when he argued that Israel should offer amnesty to “low-level” members of Hamas who have agreed to lay down their weapons — and those “who were not implicated in October 7.”

WATCH:

On CNN, Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid says Israel “shouldn’t kill low-level members of Hamas, people who where not implicated in October 7” because “Hamas is a popular movement” and must be integrated into the new Gaza government. pic.twitter.com/27I823cqHN

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 13, 2025

“How do you disarm Hamas – that is not quite clear how that’s to be worked out,” he began. “But also it’s good that in the 20-point plan there is a path for Hamas who commit to peaceful coexistence and give up their arms to get amnesty or to get safe passage out of Gaza, because at the end of the day, there are still going to be – there still will be a significant Hamas presence, so you can’t just pretend they don’t exist. And you can’t eradicate every single member of Hamas, nor should you, that would just be — that didn’t even happen, not that I like this comparison too much —”

“You say ‘nor should you,'” Keilar appeared to be taken aback. “Your case for that is what?”

“I mean you can’t — you shouldn’t kill, like, low-level members of Hamas, people who were not implicated in October 7th,” Hamid asserted. “October 7th was done by a small group of senior military commanders — Israel should have the right to kill them, and has killed many of them if not most of them, right? So — but Hamas is a popular movement and there has to be some way to bring in the low-level members into the political process because you don’t want them to play spoiler.”

“If they feel like they have no path forward, if they feel — you don’t want them to go back to arms again or to find ways to kind of undermine the path toward a kind of peaceful settlement,” he continued, comparing Hamas to the Nazis in post-war Germany. “And even if you take the example of denazification, low- and mid-level members of the Nazi Party were reintegrated into German society. It’s not as if everyone was imprisoned or executed, because you can’t do that at such a large scale. If you’re talking about a movement that has tens of thousands of people and many more sympathizers, you have to find a way to bring people into the process and integrate them.”

The peace deal currently being implemented stops short of forcing Hamas out altogether despite Israel’s repeated insistence that Hamas cannot be allowed to govern in Gaza.

In Washington, D.C., a politician’s words don’t count for much. What counts are their actions, and who benefits from them.

When you look behind the spin and empty talking points, illegal aliens and big insurance companies benefit most from the Democrats’ ongoing filibuster of the budget and government shutdown.

First, illegal aliens and other non-citizens stand to gain roughly $200 billion in welfare benefits under Democrat proposals to cancel reforms passed by Republicans earlier this year.

Congress had to close Obama and Biden-era loopholes that provided welfare to illegal aliens, including bonus money for illegal aliens’ “emergency” Medicaid, ObamaCare funding for non-citizens, lax oversight that let illegal aliens enroll with stolen identities, and the “California loophole,” which forced federal taxpayers to fund blue states’ welfare spending on illegal aliens.

All told, the Democrats’ plans would put taxpayers back on the hook for billions in welfare for illegal aliens, and they’re willing to shut down the government to get it.

The second beneficiary of the Democrats’ shutdown is the big insurance companies.

That’s thanks to one of President Joe Biden’s COVID-era bonus programs: a temporary policy to expand ObamaCare subsidies to insurance companies — more recently known as “The Great ObamaCare Enrollment Fraud.”

During COVID, Democrats significantly increased taxpayer-funded Obamacare subsidies at every level, including those who make up to half a million dollars. For the typical enrollee, taxpayers paid 100% of the premiums for a platinum-plus plan that had no deductible and few copays.

At the time, Biden’s COVID bonus was sold as a temporary boost with an expiration date — December 31, 2025 — a date unilaterally chosen and agreed to by the Democrats in charge.

These are the credits the Democrats just shut down the government to protect.

The problem is: low-income workers aren’t the biggest beneficiaries of this plan. Insurance companies are.

The Obamacare tax credits are sent every month directly to the insurance company, regardless of what plan the enrollee chooses, and regardless of whether the enrollee uses them. Unsurprisingly, the most generous plans are selected the most often: platinum-plus. The average annual subsidy for this group has risen to about $7,500 per person, from the taxpayers’ pockets straight to the insurance companies’ bottom lines.

That didn’t just incentivize sign-ups — it turbocharged fraud.

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports a greater number of sign-ups than the entire population of eligible Americans. Somehow, these Obamacare subsidies are being used by more enrollees than exist in the entire eligibility pool — and in some states, enrollment is five times the number of eligible enrollees.

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Insurance brokers and agents are paid a commission on sign-ups no matter how they were generated. That means taxpayer money is rewarding open fraud, stolen identities, and people being signed up or switched without their knowledge or permission.

As further proof of fraud, a stunning 40% of zero-premium enrollees made no health-care claims at all in 2024 — no doctor visit, no lab tests, no prescriptions filled. The number of no-claim enrollees has increased more than sixfold since 2020.

Altogether, taxpayers are now sending more than $53 billion every year directly to insurance companies for people who never use these plans, don’t know they have them, or don’t even exist.

Still, congressional Democrats are so committed to protecting this taxpayer giveaway that they shut down the government to demand its extension.

Even when these credits do expire, taxpayers will still cover more than 90% of the premiums. The average enrollee will pay only $3 to $14 per week for platinum-plus plans.

The voters saw through this nonsense when they gave Republicans their majorities in Congress — in no small part because of their pledges on government spending and illegal immigration.

So why would Republicans cave on both issues today, simply to save the Democrats from having to eat their words?

Jonathan Ingram is the Vice President of Policy and Research at the Foundation for Government Accountability.