Israel, Hostages, and Hamas

On Monday, I linked to a tweet by Mehdi Hasan, which had linked to a tweet by Aaron Rupar, who had posted a clip of ABC's Martha Raddatz. The correspondent had asked New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu about Donald Trump's remark that if enough of his supporters voted in the upcoming presidential election, they wouldn't have to vote again.

Sununu made light of the question, Raddatz responding "O.K." and immediately changed the subject. Hasan remarked "if you want to understand the failure of U.S. journalism, especially the complete inadequacy of political interviews in this country," the exchange provided a great example. I remarked "as Hasan observed, that is how it's done all too often on broadcast news."

It was an excellent catch by Hasan (and Rupar) and this tweet of his is also very helpful. That is not because Hasan is insightful but because it brings to light excellent commentary provided by NewsNation's Chris Cuomo on Monday night, which Hasan should take to heart but obviously won't. The entire piece is very valuable, this portion beginning at 4:28:

The most frustrating thing for me is that you can have it both ways. Israel's attacks have gone on much too long. There's too much death, especially to non-Hamas women and children. Hamas must return the hostages. Over 300 days, including the Americans, that this country barely pays lip service to- a little bit at the RNC, maybe you get a little bit at the DNC. Maybe not.

The eight American hostages- whether still alive or deceased- are reportedly not able to dribble a basketball. Cuomo emphasized their plight. There is no indication that Hasan ever has referred to them. The NewsNation anchor continued

And all those other people- military, non-military, male, female, where are they? When do they get given back? Then you negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas being replaced by a regional consortium of protection and facilitated elections of non-terror actors who don't campaign on eradicating the Jews.

When are the hostages to be returned? Most of us in the west thought that they should have been returned oh, 10 or 11 months ago. At present, it appears that Benjamin Netanyahu has little or no plan for the day after- for what would become of Gaza if and when Hamas is destroyed, which obviously is his goal. 

Were Hamas to agree, Israel could now sign a temporary ceasefire in return for Hamas releasing the hostages, though surely some of them have died in captivity.  Moreover, probably not all would be returned, lest Hamas lose its primary bargaining chip. (That's the way terrorists do it, Mehdi.) Israel would be setting its war aim- destruction of Hamas- back but the world, which loves (only) dead Jews and has seemingly lost interest in having Hamas eliminated, would rejoice. (The exception would be many Islamist extremists because an insufficient number of Jews would have been killed.)

The ceasefire would serve the cause of justice and stability only if, as Cuomo suggests, there is a regional consortium of powers which would facilitate elections which would not yield a victory for terrorists, as it did for Hamas in Gaza in 2005. He adds

If this happened, God forbid, if we got hit like that in America the way they got hit in the Golan Heights on Saturday, we would level Lebanon. You know it and I know it.

It is shocking that he have been so passive about our hostages. Don't we care about our own anymore?

No, we do not. We cared enough about Britney Griner to consummate an agreement after which 

Former White House national security advisor John Bolton condemned the deal as a not a swap but a surrender by the Biden administration.

"Terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this and it endangers other Americans in the future," he said.

The deal was also criticised by Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, who helped lead the team that arrested Viktor Bout.

"Today's actions just placed a target on back of every United States citizen travelling throughout the world and they just became a commodity," he told the BBC's World Tonight.

"I think we just sent the message that it's really good business to illegally detain and if not kidnap American citizens, and it's really great to have one in your back pocket if you need them for a trade at some point."

That's what Hamas has- not only many Israelis but also several Americans in their back pocket. Imagine the USA attacked attacked, whether with the ferocity Israel was on 10/7/23 or even as it was on 7/27/24. As Cuomo repeatedly has noted, the response by our nation would be fierce and  overwhelming, and heaven help Code Pink when it would stand as the lone objector. 

The Biden Administration has been pushing the ceasefire which has been on the table for many weeks now. Both the President and his understudy and would-be successor realize that continuation, and especially escalation, of the war would be vey harmful to heading off the extraordinary danger posed by Donald Trump's candidacy.  Regrettably an outlier, Chris Cuomo understands clearly what is going on in Gaza.

Sorry Chris, those of us who want a ceasefire condemn the killing of kids anywhere and by anyone and want a ceasefire to protect all kids, on all sides.

Those who oppose a ceasefire are the ones who don’t care about 14,000 plus Palestinian kids murdered by Israel. https://t.co/15pJotB6PZ

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 30, 2024

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