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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.
Netanyahu made it very clear that that a ceasefire was contingent on the unconditional return of hostages. It’s not clear what the conditions are in this “ceasefire” or how many hostages are still alive. Supposedly Hamas doesn’t even know where they all are whatever that means.
Netanyahu is now repeating the Biden meme that friends can have disagreements. That’s true but if your friend is funding and accommodating your mortal enemy that changes the dynamic somewhat. Biden is doing both with Iran.
Netanyahu is diplomatic but personally if I have to be too diplomatic with my friends it’s time to reduce whatever areas of dependency might exist. All we get is world class diplomacy. That’s fine in the areas where it’s applicable.
Netanyahu would do better if he remembered we’re not all a bunch of yahoos.
This all makes sense.
Yes and sadly, the hostage deal is a mistake…and one that Israel will be forced to manage the consequences thereof. One sympathetically understands why they did it, but there’s a reason we don’t do polling during a conflict and, as every soldier knows, there are no sympathies during war.
Netanyahu has the same Lefties that have been pushing universalism BS in his War Emergency Cabinet. We are a”stiff necked” that apparently never learns.
Agree on every point as usual. First, how do they know no more than 50 hostages are still alive or even 10? No one has checked, the Red Cross/Crescent ( on the website they are a joint operation) has refused. So Hamas will get 150 first and then, May provide 10 hostages back to the Israelis.
As you said, Daniel, just like the last disaster. Not looking forward to this.
What happened to Netanyahu? Does he have Stockholm Syndrome? He should read some of the book he wrote about terrorism in his early days. Now he’s doing anything he can to hang on to power. He deserves to lose power but sadly his replacement will be worse because it is clear that Israel and Jewish people have a death wish. How fast the lessons of the holocaust and 10/7 have been forgotten. Shame on the Jewish people for not having the fortitude and self-respect to truly mean never again. Shame on those weak-kneed Jews like Blinken who were calling for a ceasefire from word go. The consequences of this capitulation will be catastrophic.
No one is made of stone. Shame on those many 100’s of millions of Gentiles who’ve spent the last 70 years (plus 2000) ostracizing and persecuting Jews and who’ve succeeded in wearing down the will power of so many of US and of commandeering various governments on behalf of Islamic fundamentalists.
Shame on Jews? F-U. Shame on you gentiles for causing the shame in Jews that makes us lose respect for ourselves. Christianity was founded by a name-swapping, culturally conflicted, psychological mess of a diaspora Jew name Shaul-Paul-St.Paul and your religion is simply a theologized version of Jewish Stockholm Syndrome.
“Concrete problems cannot even be grasped, let alone judged or solved, without reference to abstract principles….
There can be no compromise between a property owner and a burglar; offering the burglar a single teaspoon of one’s silverware would not be a compromise, but a total surrender—the recognition of his right to one’s property.” – Ayn Rand
There can be no compromise with evil.
Hamas took those hostages precisely because taking hostages has always worked in the past to make Israel compromise with Muslim evil.
Here we go again, ’til next time.
Rand’s principles are fine in academic worlds, but Isreal is dealing with human beings not teaspoons. If they were to refuse to bring their innocent women and children home safely they are basically sacrificing them to terror.
You are mistaken, Israel would not be sacrificing the lives of the current hostages, the moral guilt of the death of these hostages is on the hands of Hamas and Muslim nihilism.
But by capitulating to Hamas over the current hostages Israel would be sacrificing the lives of future hostages. By capitulating to Hamas over the current hostages Israel is encouraging and rewarding the taking of hostages and the taking of hostages in the future.
“The Morality of War”
Again, it’s an easy argument to make in the abstract. If you were a hostage would you sacrifice yourself to it? Not in your own self-interest I would have thought.
There is nothing purely in the realm of the abstract for human beings. Research has shown that even purely abstract concepts have emotional underpinnings. You should know that THX.
The right course of action might haunt a person for the rest of his life and the wrong one the same. It’s easy if you aren’t involved.
Wait and see.
Pray for Netanyahu and each Minister, Observer, Invitee by name.
Expect God to direct and council, and perfect timing.
There is war that can be seen.
There is war humans do not see.
Wait and pray.
Discuss if you like but dont leave that discusion w/o praying together.
I would agree, if Isreal was to refuse to accept the hostages the main stream media would turn the world against them.
Hamas islamic cowards have put Isreal in a difficult position, taking back the hostages will be the next step, once they have been returned to their families, then Isreal can get tough once again.
Regarding Reason 7:
A.. Including Qatar in the same sentence as Iran is not merely simplistic, it’s flat-out wrong.
B. Calling those who favor diplomacy over force “agents of… Iran” is the kind of bombastic nonsense that would make Joe McCarthy proud. You’re better than that, Daniel..
Joe McCarthy has been proven correct again.
Sure. Iran and Qatar, the latter controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, are two sides of the same Islamic coin and they have explicitly agreed to cooperate vis-à-vis the West.
8. Once a “cease fire” is in place there will be enormous pressure from the U.S. and E.U. to extend it endlessly. All that Hamas has to do to avoid destruction is to stand pat so the onus will be on Israel to restart the fighting which will cause it to be portrayed as the villain. We’ll be inundated by our garbage media and “elite” opinion-makers with calls to “give peace a chance.”
If you continue to give in to their demands they will just keep on doing it if you give them a Bloody Nose maybe they wil think about it and hopefully quit
So, Daniel, a lot of new posters since the link from the New York Post; guess my initial assesment of a lack of success was wrong. Anyhow, most of these newbies…motzetz zayin.
You don’t mention that this will result in dead Israelis. Additional soldiers will die in Gaza because Hamas was given the opportunity to regroup, rearm and entrench. Also, the terrorists released from prison or their descendants are likely to kill Jews. Plus this givrs a boost to the terrorists in general, which will.lead to more terroruists and therefore more deaths. Everyone keeps sauing this is “moral,” but was it moral to release Shalit in exchange for Sinwar, who just planned the muder of 1,200 Jews. Every time we make concessions to the terrorists more Jews die. Bombing on buses killed a few, thrn restaurants killed more, then the Pesach massacre. Now we’re at 1,200 in one shot. If we keeo appeasing an Iranian nuke will take out a million in Tel Aviv. We need to stop the madness and destroy our evil enemies. Otherwise they will find a way to slaughter us again.
Being immoral, the irredeemable wicked have no moral dilemmas. The sole purpose in their depraved lives is to create moral dilemmas for the moral people whom they despise. This gives the wicked tremendous, but insatiable pleasure, truly a sick and empty existence devoid of soul.
The nation of Israel will deal with this moral dilemma as best she can with all her heart, soul and might, united in our faith, in our land, against evil,
כן יהי רצון
אנא ה׳ הושיעה נא
אנא ה׳ הצליחה נא
I’m very sad to see Israel set theirselves up Its a trap. These ppl know only evil. Decapitating. Babies was enough for me