This week, the Guardian reported that the Hamas militant group has indicated it doesn’t have 40 living captives that meet the criteria for a U.S.-backed hostage exchange proposal.
WWL’s Newell Normand explained how he thinks we got to this point, and how he thinks hostage negotiations failed following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that sparked an ongoing war in the Gaza strip.
“He’s worried about reelection, plain and simple,” said Normand of President Joe Biden. “He’s not worried about the long-standing relationship that we’ve had with the state of Israel and the Israelis, and what they have provided for us and critical human action intelligence. Over and over and over again, protecting our homeland.”
To put it more simply, Normand thinks that fear has impacted the hostage negotiations. Citing an article in the National Review by Noah Rothman, he said he agrees with the author that Hamas has “played” the U.S. and that Biden has been harder on Israel due to pressure from the far left.
“Joe Biden has invested a lot of political capital in the idea that the terrorist group Hamas was a rational negotiating partner,” said Rothman. “His administration leaned into the notion that there could be, if not a negotiated settlement to Israel’s defensive war in the Gaza Strip, a brokered end to the hostage crisis Hamas inaugurated on October 7. But there won’t be.”
According to The Guardian, “a senior Israeli official confirmed claims made at the weekend by Hamas during talks in Cairo that it does not have 40 hostages in Gaza who meet the exchange criteria,” for an exchange that called for a phased exchange of hostages for an estimated 900 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel as well as a six-week ceasefire in Gaza. Hostages from Hamas would include women, sick people and the elderly.
An estimated 240 hostages from Israel were taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 and so far, 112 have been returned. Of the remaining hostages, Israel believes at least 30 are dead. Israeli troops also reportedly shot three escaped hostages by mistake.
This month, seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen were also killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
“I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza,” said Biden. “They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.”
He also said that Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers or civilians in Gaza.
“His frustration that he has exhibited towards Israel is really telling,” said Normand of the president.
who added: “Where is this frustration? Where is this anger? Where are any public statements about Hamas and about this game that they’ve been playing?”
Now, Normand thinks we’re at the point where we are “negotiating in the dark,” with Hamas. He thinks we should have demanded proof of life for the hostages.
This Monday, the White House issued a press release about Vice President Kamala Harris meeting with families of Americans taken hostage on Oct. 7.
“The Vice President again condemned Hamas as a brutal terrorist organization and its horrific use of sexual violence, reaffirmed that the threat Hamas poses to Israel must be eliminated, and denounced the rise of antisemitism worldwide,” said the release. “The Vice President expressed her continued support for these families and they discussed the agony and pain felt over the past 6 months. The Vice President told them that they and their loved ones remain at the forefront of her mind and in her prayers as the Biden-Harris Administration works to secure the release of all the hostages.”
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They “discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of all hostages through an agreement for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” said a press release.