The question was wrong, but the answer was wronger.
Upon returning to the White House from his vacation, a reporter asked President Biden, "Mr. President, do you think it’s time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he is doing enough (to free the hostages)?”
Biden responded, "No."
The timing of the question, and Biden’s response, were significant. This was the day after the funeral of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem. Hersh was one of more than 250 people kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and held in captivity for nearly 11 months. Just days before the IDF found his body along with five other hostages in one of the vast network of hundreds of miles of Hamas terror tunnels, the terrorists filmed them all, editing and releasing these as part of their psychological warfare, and executed each of the six hostages, shot at close range multiple times.
Facing the complementary and sometimes conflicting goals of eradicating Hamas and its control of Gaza, preventing them from ever threatening Israel again, as well as rescuing ALL the hostages, it’s not only debatable whether Israel could do more, but the consequences of any deal are ones that Israel will bear alone. The issue of Israel and Netanyahu doing more is not a theoretical question, but an actual debate that’s very public and very divisive.
Biden, Harris, or anyone else from the administration piling on, and not exclusively holding Hamas accountable for the war and all its consequences, is inaccurate and irresponsible. This includes all the suffering among Gazans who have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by the Iranian-backed Islamic terrorists, and who have been used as human shields with terrorists hiding and establishing a vast network of terrorist infrastructure in hospitals, schools, mosques, residential communities, UN facilities, and more.
The question that should have been asked of Biden is whether he had done enough to free the hostages, at least Hersh and all the Americans, if not ALL the hostages. For months, Biden, Kamala Harris, and multiple representatives of their administration have blamed Israel in general, and Netanyahu specifically, for not “making a deal” that would include the release of hostages, and a “ceasefire.”
What could the Biden-Harris administration have done months ago to save the hostages, specifically the American citizens among them? They could have made a personal call to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and demanded that Qatar expel all Hamas leaders within 24 hours unless all the hostages are released. There are many tangible material ways the administration could have offered the Qatari Emir “a deal he cannot refuse.”
The Biden-Harris administration could have made it clear to Iran that the US will impose harsh sanctions and take bold military action against the IRGC, Iran’s nuclear sites, economic infrastructure, and the “Supreme Leader” and other ayatollahs directly.
Rather than providing nearly $700 million in funding and aid in Gaza, much of which went into the hands of Hamas, including the ridiculously expensive and failed floating port that cost American taxpayers millions, the administration could have cut off Hamas hermetically. It could have propped up the Palestinian Authority to go back into Gaza (since being forced out in a bloody 2007 coup) to fight Hamas directly.
Coupling the economic pressure, Biden, Harris, and all administration representatives could have spoken out in every speech and public statement demanding the hostages be released immediately, mentioning (at least) the American hostages by name.
Taking the campaign to free the hostages to Gazans directly, the administration could have offered major monetary rewards for information that leads to the release of the hostages, and the location of the terrorist leaders. One cannot underestimate how much a reward of $100,000, $500,000 or $1 million could go in a society that is under intense military and economic pressure.
Shockingly, none of this was done. By not doing so, and by publicly blaming Israel and giving the terrorists equal footing, the mistaken and dangerous message being sent is that Hamas can and should be in control.
Blaming Israel and Netanyahu is also mistaken because even the administration has repeatedly acknowledged how much Israel has done, and how much Hamas should accept Israel’s generosity.
As Netanyahu said following Biden’s misguided verbal slap in the face, “On April 27th, I put forward a proposal, which Secretary Blinken called extremely generous. On May 31st, we agreed to the US-backed proposal, and Hamas refused. On August 16th, the US brought forth what they called the final bridging proposal. Again, we accepted, Hamas refused. On August 19th, Secretary Blinken said, Israel accepted the US proposal, now Hamas has to do the same. On August 28th the deputy CIA director said Israel showed seriousness in the negotiations, now Hamas must make the deal.” Bewildered by Biden’s comment, Netanyahu asked, “(since last week) what has changed. What has changed this week? What's changed is that they murdered six of our hostages in cold blood.”
What has not changed is that the Biden-Harris administration could have done more. Much more. Now, despite the execution of the hostages and threats to do more, will the world actually demand that Israel make continued concessions after this massacre?
The message to the terrorists from the administration’s equivocating and failure to take bold action itself is that the more hostages they murder, the more concessions they'll get.
Hamas’ strategy and currency, in everything, is to inflict the greatest human suffering possible: physically and psychologically. They do so from a genocidal theology and goal to eradicate Israel and massacre Jews. They do so among in a mafia-like way among Gazans to increase pressure on Israel by sowing internal discord to brutalize their own people, to preserve their inhuman control.
With zero exception, everything that happened on October 7 and the war that has ensued is exclusively because of Hamas. Hamas massacred 1200 people in the most gruesome and inhuman ways, kidnapped more than 250, used its own people as human shields, and continues to hold more than 100 hostages, the death of every one of whom is all and only on their hands. Hamas is to blame.
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