Israel had a clear moral case for taking out Hamas.
Why would Israel agree to a hostage deal with Hamas? Israel agreed to a much worse deal to free another hostage some years back. That deal and the ones before it were wrong. And yet with a large number of hostages held in enemy hands, and with hundreds of family members rallying for their release, I’m not surprised that it was agreed to.
Qatar, a state sponsor of Hamas, came to Biden with this. And Biden wants a political win. After over a month of fighting, a lot of political interests want something besides dead terrorists.
Even though dead terrorists is what a win looks like.
It may be stating the obvious, but here’s why the hostage deal is a terrible idea.
1. After Oct 7, the new rule was that Hamas would no longer be treated like a normal entity, but like an abominable evil that had to be destroyed. The negotiations kill that. Once you negotiate with evil, it stops being unacceptable. That’s why we had rules against negotiating with terrorists. When the taboo is broken, it’s a lot harder to put back into place.
Oct 7 should have restored an absolute taboo. No more.
2. Hamas has been losing. Its defense strategy has failed. Its best hope for staying in power is to boost morale and make its forces and Arab Muslims in Gaza think that this was all for something.
In today’s article, I delved into why the poll numbers for Hamas and the war were worse in Gaza than in the West Bank. Now Hamas will claim to have delivered a win.
3. The deal endangers other hostages. Hamas wants time to relocate its forces and the hostages. This deal gives it that. Beyond the temporary cessation of attacks, Israel will ‘blind’ itself to its movements. This not only sets back the war effort, but it allows Hamas to make off with and then kill more hostages.
4. The deal means that Israel is falling back into the same bad habits of believing in negotiated deterrence that led to the Oct 7 attack. Delusions of diplomacy are a bad idea. Especially when it comes to terrorists. Hamas can’t be negotiated with or deterred. No Islamic terrorist group can. The moment anyone thinks that way, they’ve lost.
5. Negotiating for hostages leads to the taking of hostages. Period.
6. Israel had a clear moral case for taking out Hamas. Negotiating with it muddies it and undermines Israel’s supporters.
7. After Oct 7, there was a conflict within the Biden administration over diplomacy vs. force. The ‘diplomacy’ crowd will now claim to have won and be in the driver’s seat for setting policy. That means people who are basically agents of Qatar and Iran are back in charge of foreign policy. This will have terrible implications for American support for Israel’s war effort.
Alex Lund says
Israel should have cordoned off Gaza, with nothing getting in or out. This includes news and messages (you need jamming equipment for that) and waited.
And if the Gazans want food or water: They can trade in the hostages. One hostage, alive, not hurt (including rape or shellshock) is worth water and food for one person for one day. If hurt or dead of course less food and water.
That should have gotten the hostages back fast.
And if the Gazans dont give the hostages back and kill them: Continue to wait. Every territory can only support a certain amount of people. We of the West foolishly sent food to Africa,Middle East so that the numbers of muslims are way above what the territory can support.
If we ut off the food, nature will take its course.
After a long enough wait we can walk in and the few numbers cant resist us.
James Hoagland says
This article is very correct. As tough as the moral question is for Israel there is enough experience from previous conflicts to learn NOT TO NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS. Even more so in this case because after reading the Hamas Charter these savages actually believe that they are acting for “G-D”. Clearly their celestial being is a demon. Clearly Allah is a demon. There is no way to negotiate with these creatures. They have been allowed to fester in Gaza like in a cocoon to grow and become powerful with the support of other Muslim countries but especially Iran. What October 7 displayed that is unique to previous conflicts is that they practiced an invasion. There was evidence at the border that women and children were near at hand to occupy the remaining buildings that weren’t burned or destroyed. That is an indication for the plans concerning the near future. The Shiites are aiming to destroy Israel soon and on a world wide scale to kill all Jews. Tough reading but even more tough not to draw a line and make a stand. This is a religious war. They war on the God of Israel, the God of the Bible. For believers they need to make a leap of understanding and practice their belief as being monotheistic. One God, created this world and all monotheists need to unite against this barbaric false religion.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I largely agree w/ you, but as I pointed out in the previous post, as long as the lives of hostages are considered sacrosanct, they will continue to remain valuable currency for jihadists dealing w/ Israel
somehistory says
A terrible situation. Any kidnapping has the same problem….paying a kidnapper is rewarding the criminal for committing the crime. Many victims of kidnapping are already dead when the ransom is paid.
This “deal” with hamas is a paying of ransom; a rewarding of the ghouls for their ghoulish, demonic actions.
It’s understandable from the families’ point of view…they want their family members back more than they want hamas destroyed.
From the government’s point of view, they are between the devil and the deep blue….if they hadn’t agreed to the deal, the pressure would have increased and any dead hostages later found would be used to say how they didn’t care about the citizens.
Agreeing means, as Mr. Greenfield states, hamas has a “win” and it gives them time to take more people hostage for later trades, murder more, regroup, resupply, and move to safe hideouts.
hamas may find help in Egypt…fleeing there until they gain strength again.
pfwag says
8. War is deceit. Muhammad.
Rick Olsha says
Israel will do anything possible to SAVE life. AM ISRAEL CHI !!!!!!