I was pleasantly shocked this morning when the remaining living Israeli hostages were released, I really didn’t expect it to happen. I won’t be shocked if the bodies of the dead ones don’t come back but I’ll be delighted to be wrong.
I was not shocked when the Palestinians in Gaza started slaughtering each other (the ones in areas not still held by Israel of course) that was no surprise.
But if you want to see what is the least surprising thing of all, it’s this:
BREAKING: Live look at Columbia University after they learned that Hamas is mass-slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/swcn5iMmcY
Not a protestor in sight over the murder of Palestinians by other Palestinians, because in the end the “protestors” don’t care about Arab lives, they simply want Jews dead.
I suspect you will see this lack of reaction from all those who loudly demanded a cease fire because the only people they wanted to cease firing were the Jews.
I am a Northern man, and I know my people. I know their peculiar weaknesses and their national vanity. I know we can get better terms from them on the 4th of July than any other day of the year. We must sacrifice our pride to these considerations.
General John Pemberton on why he surrendered the City of Vicksburg to Grant on the 4th of July
In between browsing stories of the criminal incompetency of Democrats in California I noticed this piece linked at Elder of Ziyon concerning a possible hostage deal:
Officials in Washington were cautiously optimistic on Friday about the prospects of closing a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza before the end of US President Joe Biden’s term, with CIA Director William Burns assessing ongoing negotiations in Doha as “quite serious” and White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby saying he believes a hostage deal is possible before January 20.
In his interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” the CIA chief said, “Negotiations going on right now are quite serious and do offer the possibility, at least, of getting this done in the next couple of weeks.”
Usually I would consider the Biden administration odds of pulling something like this off less likely as Lynda Carter showing up at my doorstep and declaring uncontrollable desire for me but for the next 7 or eight days the stars are aligned in a way that provides massive incentives for both the Biden administration and Hamas to get this done.
For all of the screaming of their allies on campus concerning the Biden administration aiding their Zionist enemy they know Hamas understands that this administration is a secret ally and that they are likely to get better terms from the Biden team then they will from the Trump team. Furthermore any such terms will not involve them being killed.
Additionally Hamas’ backers in Qatar know that the only reason that Israel has not taken them out as the enablers of Hamas is due to US interests in their nation. Donald Trump however is a wild card who they can not predict. Furthermore he does not have to get elected again so he has very little to lose politically. If he tells Israeli that any operations against said leaders and financers of Hamas in Qatar from financial, to assassination or even military as long as he doesn’t know about it is not America’s business things might happen. The only thing you can do with millions if you’re dead is have a big funeral and a large tomb.
Those are pretty big incentives on the Arab side but they pale before the incentives of the Biden administration to go out with a success and deny Trump one. The Biden Administration has made it quite clear that they’re willing to harm America if it can hinder a future Trump administration. They can thus kill two birds with one stone by making a deal beneficial to Hamas and their terror allies while they still have the authority to do so. They can funnel them millions (minus the big guy’s 10% of course) make concessions and perhaps even arm them laying the groundwork for trouble for the administration all in the name of releasing the hostages because they know their allies in media and the UN will focus on the hostages release and ignore any long term harm any deal can bring. If they can get it done by the 18th or even the 17th There can be two days of pushing the Biden success rather than the Trump threat of hell to pay.
In short, like Confederate General John Pemberton at Vicksburg, Hamas, Qatar, the UN and international terror funding machine, international anti-Semites and the Biden administration know they can get better terms on any day before January 20th then they will any time after that date.
While all eyes are currently on what was one of the most dramatic and exciting Superbowl Games in the history of the sport the real prize of the day goes to the IDF, Shin Bet who managed to raid a location where two of their hostages were being held and rescued them at the cost of only one wounded while taking out quite a large number of Hamas.
That they were able to get hostages freed at all is incredible, that they managed to pull this off in only an hour is staggering, that they did so without Israeli causalities seems almost impossible.
The spike of the football, the raid took place in the city of Raffa which apparently the Biden Administration has been pressuring the Israeli government to leave alone. As Elder of Ziyon put it:
Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and the US have been pressuring Israel not to operate in Rafah. After seeing that hostages are kept there and Israel saved some, practically no Israelis will agree.
I’m presuming that Hamas will be smuggling any remaining living hostages out of the country but frankly if I’m Egypt I really don’t want to be seen as part of that operation. Then again:
That’s a lot of tanks just to make sure Gazans trapped in Hamas hell stay in Gaza. Probably a violation of the 1979 peace treaty as well. https://t.co/76oLLPENxv
Egypt has warned Hamas that it must agree to a hostages-for-ceasefire deal with Jerusalem within two weeks to avert an Israel Defense Forces operation in the terror group’s last stronghold in the Gaza Strip, the southernmost city of Rafah, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
This week, Israel will reportedly dispatch to Cairo negotiators to discuss a new hostage deal with U.S., Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Given that drawing Egypt into a war with Israel would be a big win for Hamas I’m betting they’re not going to listen to that advice.
In 1904, a Greek American, Ion Hanford Perdicaris, was kidnapped by Ahmed al-Raisuli, a Moroccan tribal leader. Theodore Roosevelt was president. And the official American response to Perdicaris being taken hostage was simple: “We want Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.” There’s more. Roosevelt sent several companies of Marines and seven warships to Morocco.
The end result was a compromise. Perdicaris was freed and the sultan of Morocco paid a ransom to Raisuni, but also $4,000 to the United States to cover the expenses of the incident.
Moving to the present, our current president, Joe Biden, hasn’t done much more than beg for the release of ten-or-so Americans held in Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
Yeah, yeah, I know the rest of that narrative, which roughly is, “We’re working behind the scenes to secure the release of all American hostages,” or something like that.
Begging is more accurate, I believe.
As of this writing, 58 hostages have been released by Hamas, but only one American, 4-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, whose parents were murdered by the terrorists. She was released this morning, as part of third round of hostage released–a fourth is expected on Monday—which is part of a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Israel in turn has released at least 100 Palestinian prisoners.
Thailand clearly gets more respect than America, although none of the hostages should have been taken.
Hostage-taking and purposeful killing of civilians are both war crimes–not that Hamas cares about that.
Biden, who favors a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians–which would presumably include Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists–came across far less forceful than Teddy Roosevelt, when speaking of Abigail’s release.
“What she endured is unthinkable,” Biden said. “Thank God she’s home. I just can’t imagine the enjoyment. I wish I were there to hold her.”
Eww.
Instead, Biden should say this: American hostages released or the Hamas leaders dead.
But Biden, even though he is clearly suffering from cognitive decline, apparently still has enough brain cells for now to realize he’s a tool of the growing hate-Israel wing within the Democrat Party.
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