Executed in Gaza

This is more than passing strange. Hamas executed six hostages, one of which was an American, and Israeli citizens mass to denounce their prime minister for not having reached a cease fire deal with the terrorists.

You would think that they are working for the Biden administration. Our feckless and weak administration, having botched Middle East policy at a level we have rarely seen, has been hard at work placing the blame on the Israeli prime minister. I have followed the development of this blame shifting narrative, and we see its fruits in the Israeli demonstrations. It’s not Joe’s fault; it’s Bibi’s.

Nothing could be clearer. Without thinking-- as usually happens-- Biden said yesterday that Netanyahu was not doing enough to find a negotiated settlement. His policy used to be “don’t.” Now it’s “No.”

The Wall Street Journal editorializes the extent of the Biden administration failure.

Vice President Kamala Harris claimed a Rafah invasion would doom its civilians. “I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,” she said. Israel proved her wrong, evacuating a million Gazans in two weeks. Israel has dismantled Hamas’s Rafah brigade with notably low civilian casualties.

Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris withheld weapons to stop Israel from fighting in Rafah. Ms. Harris wouldn’t rule out “consequences” if Israel went ahead. It should be clear now why Israel couldn’t let Hamas rule Rafah.

Humanitarian groups hyped worst-case scenarios for a Rafah invasion. Egypt threatened to abrogate its peace treaty with Israel over it. Israel has since discovered more than a dozen tunnels from Rafah into Egypt, which now insists that Israel leave the border to let Hamas’s arms smuggling resume.

Vice President Kamala Harris claimed a Rafah invasion would doom its civilians. “I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,” she said. Israel proved her wrong, evacuating a million Gazans in two weeks. Israel has dismantled Hamas’s Rafah brigade with notably low civilian casualties.

Strangely, the Biden administration policy position imagines that Israel is facing a good faith negotiating partner. As the recent executions have shown, such is not the case.

The New York Post editorial page summarizes the conundrum:

Some families of the dead are blaming this loss on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to secure a cease-fire, and no one can question their sorrow or resolve.

But Hamas has shown again and again that it wasn’t negotiating in good faith. The terrorists refused to return hostages unless Israel essentially surrendered, pulled out of Gaza and allowed Hamas to remain in power.

The “huge mistake” here was not failing to capitulate to Hamas, it is the US criticizing Israel rather than joining the fight.

The more Israeli citizens rise up against their prime minister, and the more the American administration insists on seeing the situation through the toxic cloud of moral equivalence, the weaker the Israeli negotiating position becomes. The people who are on the streets calling for a cease fire, like the Biden administration, must realize that they are doing the bidding of Hamas and making negotiation less, not more likely.

The Post offers an alternative strategy.

The Biden-Harris administration could have told Iran: Force your proxy to give up hostages or pay a steep price — financially and militarily.

And told Hamas in no uncertain terms: Give up the hostages or we help Israel root you out, and pressure Qatar to stop sheltering your leader.

The very least would have been to give Israel a free hand to try to rescue its people.

We saw the heroics the IDF was capable of in June, when it freed Noa Argamani and three other hostages alive out of Nuseirat.

That these bodies were found in Rafah shows that Israel was absolutely right that Hamas despicably hid hostages among Gazan civilians, gambling that campus protesters and hesitant governments would stay Israel’s hand.

Harris and Biden played right into Hamas’ ploy, threatening Israel to appease the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party. 

They put the electoral votes of Michigan before what was right.

We don’t know how many hostages remain alive in Gaza. As another sign of how evil Hamas is, it won’t say.

But the way forward could not be more clear: The real “red lines” are for Iran and Hamas. Give up the hostages that are left, or face the wrath of the United States.

Hedge fund tycoon Bill Ackman also offers a cogent analysis of Biden administration failure:

Consider that Hamas chose to execute an American hostage with a bullet to the back of his head during the last two or three days (along with five other hostages) whose parents just spoke at the DNC less than two weeks ago, while hostage negotiations were underway. 

Consider that the U.S. strategy over the last 330 days has been to pressure Israel to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, including through the withholding of weapons from @Israel, and by periodically leaking our failure to support our ally to the media in the midst of hostage negotiations. Consider what pressure if any the U.S. has brought to bear on Hamas and our friends in the region who harbor Hamas’ leadership? 

Our friends in the region, that would be Turkey and Qatar. These countries are harboring the leadership of Hamas, without drawing the ire or the punishment of the Biden administration.

Clearly, Hamas does not fear the wrath of Biden. It does not fear the wrath of Kamala. It knows that it can murder an American hostage with impunity. Besides, our great allies in once-Great Britain has chosen this moment to stop some arms sales to Israel. It's called rewarding depravity.

And then there is this. Netanyahu has now responded to the accusations:

I was asked whether Israel is not I'm not doing enough to the release of hostages. Well, I wanna set the record straight. On April 27th, secretary of state Blinken said that Israel made an extraordinarily generous offer for a hostage deal. On May 31st, Israel agreed to a US backed proposal. Hamas refused.

On August 16th, Israel agreed to what the United States defined as a final bridging proposal. Hamas refused again. On August 19th, secretary Blinken said, Israel accepted the US proposal. 

Now Hamas must do the same. On, August 28th, that's 5 days ago 5 days ago, deputy CIA director said that Israel shows seriousness in the negotiations.

Now Hamas must show the same seriousness. I wanna ask you something. What has changed in the last 5 days? What has changed? One thing.

These murderers executed 6 of our hostages. They shot them in the back of the head. That's what's changed. And now after this, we're asked to show seriousness. We're asked to make concessions.

What message does this send Hamas? It says, kill more hostages, murder more hostages. You'll get more concessions. The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes.

They say no all the time, but they also murdered these people. And now we need maximum pressure on Hamas. I don't believe that either president Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving the release would seriously ask Israel to make these concessions. We've already made them. Hamas has to make the concession.

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