Biden, Blinken, and a possible hostage deal
This is one of the most disturbing discussions I’ve ever heard. If the information here is accurate – and I believe it substantially is – the Biden administration is pressuring Israel to make a suicidal deal and to reward the terrorists and hand them a triumph.
I have detested this administration from the start. For example, the manner of its withdrawal from Afghanistan was absolutely catastrophic in an almost surrealistic way, making a bad situation so very much worse, and for no rational reason (unless the destruction of America’s military reputation and deterrent threat is the reason). What Biden and company did there seemed to be capriciously evil, almost a sort of madness. And what the administration is reported to want Israel to do now has the same characteristics: self-destructive madness for Israel and reward for some of the worst people on earth.
If you don’t want to become very very angry, don’t watch it:
In related news:
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, says the Gaza-ruling terror group remains committed to its initial demands for a permanent ceasefire. Israel is ready to pause the fighting in order to secure the release of hostages, but insists it will not end its military campaign until Hamas is destroyed.
Hamdan also says Hamas seeks the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners being held for acts related to the conflict with Israel, including those serving life sentences.
He mentions two by name, including Fatah terror convict Marwan Barghouti, who is seen as a top future candidate to lead the Palestinian Authority. Barghouti was arrested by Israel in 2002 and is serving five life terms for planning three terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five Israelis.
In addition to Barghouti, Hamdan names Ahmad Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, as well as Hamas prisoners and those from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization. Saadat is serving a 30-year sentence for his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.
The internal pressure from many (not all) of the hostage families and many many other Israelis, and the external pressure from Blinken and Biden, is immense. But it seems suicidal madness to me to even consider such a deal.
Why are they even seriously talking about it? Two possibilities occur to me. The first is that they are seriously considering it. The second is that they wish to appear to be, both to placate the families (who will not be placated until their loved ones return) and to keep the terrorists hoping. The reason to keep the terrorists hoping is that, if the terrorists were to think no deal is possible, the hostages’ worth would disappear and they would likely be killed and possibly publicly, with extra violence and cruelty, in Isis-like fashion.
I didn’t heed your warning. I listened, and became very very angry. I haven’t been keeping up as closely as I did in the early days, but this is the first I’ve heard of weapons entering Gaza via tunnels from Egypt. I suspected this would happen.
No deal under those circumstances
One of the ‘intellectual’ pillars on the left is the ‘theory’ of transnationalism. Which posits that nation States must be dissolved. Perhaps the three most prominent nation States in the West are the United States, Israel and arguably the UK. Of the three, Israel is the most physically vulnerable. Hamas, i.e. Islam and the Left are in agreement that Israel must cease to exist.
Good question
https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1753546274622861570
Mike, I thought that Egypt had dug up those tunnels a while ago and even invented the tactic of flooding them with sea water. It’s hard to keep up these days.
I can’t imagine how bloody the merging of Gaza and the West Bank into a single country would be. Both of them are dictatorships and don’t see eye to eye. The last election of any kind was in Gaza in 2007 in which Hamas won by killing its rivals from the PA. No doubt the winner will institute a Jeffersonian democracy.
Samaria stands between them southern israel
Yes, I know everyone says Egypt hates Hamas and wouldn’t help them. But I don’t really buy it. I assume the Israeli navy has the coast line well monitored. The obvious way to get weapons in is under that border. The Palestinians have clearly been very clever in avoiding detection, and I have to think they have plenty of sympathizers in Egypt.
An observation from the post Neo linked:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamas-demands-release-of-fatah-terror-chief-barghouti-pflp-leader-as-part-of-hostage-deal/
In fact, Hamas violated the prior years-long truce by attacking on 10/7, and then Hamas violated the November truce as noted, thus the Israelis proceeded with their attacks, the truce being already void.
The Palestinians remind me of my brother, who always cried about getting hit back but never admitted he had hit one of us first.
Hamas keeps using the word truce to mean “you stop fighting with us, until we’re ready to start again, usually by ambushing you.”
Yes, they are dealing with criminal murderous ideologues, but …
In all of the TV shows with hostage negotiating “experts”, they always say to demand “proof of life” from the criminals to continue the payoff, etc.
Thus, one might think Israel’s negotiators should be continually demanding proof of life of the hostages as part of any promise to cease fire for some time span (say once every 3 to 7 days?).
Of course the real world is not a TV show and showing proof of life of the hostages they hold would be too risky for Hamas, but not demanding it seems a strange item to not bring up???
Has it been reported that even at this late date, the IDF does not really know where all of the tunnels are, down to multiple levels underground? Perhaps some are not being entered yet for fear of Hamas killing the hostages held therein?
Correction: There is NOT immense internal pressure for a hostage release.
The Lefties overplayed this issue, explicitly linked it to petty anti-Bibi politics – and lost most Israelis.
As Caroline Glick has reported (see the video you embedded) even Left-leaning Israelis realize that things are different this time.
There is also understanding that this is a long haul battle for Israel’s existence. The emotional breast-beating pitch of the left has not convinced most Israelis… there are more important things that must be done “by any means necessary” to quote one of the Left’s slogans…
Also the horrors of the attacks and the testimony of the released hostages has led many to doubt that more than a few hostages are still alive.
In contrast, the protests against the “humanitarian” aid to Hamas is snowballing. It started with a handful of families of soldiers and has grown to thousands blocking the trucks. When the army closed the area of the border crossing to civilians, the protest shifted to the port of Ashdod – and grew in number.
Don’t believe everything you see/read. You can safely discount any reports of internal Israeli pressure to compromise.. they are wishful thinking by progressives and pundits.
This Israeli coalition will easily survive for the foreseeable future. Saber rattling by Yair Lapid or others is just that – they understand that anyone disrupting conduct of this war or talking about coexistence will be punished in the polls.
I don’t think it would take a rocket scientist to conclude that Egyptians of many different stripes have been paid handsomely over the past 15-odd years—are being paid handsomely now—to look the other way while Gaza was/is being rearmed, resupplied, reinvigorated through Sinai tunnels by…might one guess WHOM?
Where else could such huge quantities of military materiel and building material (and tunnel “consultants”) come from?
(IOW, just another “Peace Dividend”…)
Meanwhile, the Israeli LEFT, having clearly been thrown off balance by the October 7 butchery and savagery, has recovered and eagerly climbed on the “Bring the Hostages Home NOW” bandwagon so as to put pressure on Israel’s government…and ultimately take down Bibi.
(But then the Israeli LEFT has made common cause with “Biden” for some time now. And vice versa.)
Don’t believe everything you see/read. You can safely discount any reports of internal Israeli pressure to compromise.. they are wishful thinking by progressives and pundits.
Thank you, Ben David.
Except that “Biden” has vays….
And yes, we saw what “he” did in Afghanistan…
…and what “he”‘s doing to the United States.
“”This Is Not Friendly” – Bret Weinstein Shows Tucker Carlson How China & The UN Are Driving The Invasion Of America”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/not-friendly-bret-weinstein-shows-tucker-carlson-how-china-un-are-driving-invesion
I can’t watch the unwatchable. If I were willing to make a so called deal it would mean my entire life was a lie. Fu** these people. The only words I have left are expletives.
The only question I have remaining is, do I go with the k bar or the khukri. I bet you think I’m joking. The nice thing about a knife is you never need to reload it.
Both
I take it back. I can watch the unwatchable. Because those who perpetrate it depend on people looking away.
I prefer to look death in its stinking ugly horrific face. But I don’t like it.