The Biden-Harris administration apparently sees no problem with a Palestinian state being yet another terrorist state, committed to annihilating Israel -- as both Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force commander General Esmail Qaani ("Israel is a cancer that must be eliminated"), and senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad have straightforwardly vowed.
A ceasefire might sound as if it is a "good thing" that benefits everyone -- understandably if a friend or family member is a hostage. The problem seems to be the Hamas demand that Israel should leave the "Philadelphi corridor" on the border between Gaza and Egypt, so that Hamas, backed by its patrons Qatar and Iran, can resume smuggling weapons and ammunition into Gaza, rearm, rebuild and attack again.
It is probably more convenient, for all those trying to overthrow Netanyahu, to look at him rather than at the real perpetrators: Hamas, Iran and Qatar.
Qatar, "the Trojan Horse in Washington D.C.," has long been financing Islamic terrorist organizations, as well as bestowing more than $6 billion on US universities to teach American youths whatever Qatar's leaders decide. Nevertheless, the Biden-Harris administration decided that these qualifications made Qatar perfect to negotiate the Gaza war on America's behalf, the same way the administration unfathomably decided to have Russia negotiate on America's behalf with Iran over restarting the nuclear deal.
The Biden-Harris administration seems to want Netanyahu gone to be able to work with "their" prime minister: one who presumably would be delighted not only to have a terrorist Palestinian state on his borders -- a state sworn to Israel's destruction -- and who would also be delighted if Iran -- also sworn to Israel's destruction -- had nuclear weapons. It is the policy embraced by Obama, so long as Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons "on his watch." Down the road, however, would be an altogether different story.
What many Israelis seem unwilling or unable to see is, sadly, that even with a ceasefire, the hostages will not be released. Hamas will hold on to as many of them as they can for as long as they can, to keep them in play as a weapon.
With a ceasefire, Israel unfortunately will not get peace and will not get the hostages. The Israelis might see a few hostages at a time dribbled out, the living ones first, they hope, each one exchanged for hundreds, if not more, of convicted Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons, whose first job would be to go right back to terrorizing.
Meanwhile, the negotiations over every hostage would allow plenty of time for Iran and Hamas to bring more weapons in through the unguarded border from Egypt into Gaza, in order to rearm. The current leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is himself a convicted terrorist who confessed to murdering four people with his own hands. Sinwar was serving four life sentences in an Israeli prison when he was released, among more than 1,000 terrorists, in exchange for one Israeli hostage, Gilad Shalit, in 2011.
There is at least one way to get the hostages back quickly.... "Many Americans believe that they owe Qatar for its hosting of the U.S. CENTCOM base. The truth is precisely the opposite: It is Qatar that owes the U.S., for locating this base there. Without this base's presence in the country, Qatar would disappear within less than a week – its neighbours would eat it up." — Yigal Carmon, MEMRI, June 10, 2024.
Instead of saying, as the propagandists no doubt like, "Bring them Home," meant to sound as if Netanyahu is hiding the hostages under the Knesset, Israelis would be better off saying, "Release the Hostages" -- directed at Hamas, Qatar and Iran.
A ceasefire deal unfortunately will not bring back the hostages any time soon. Hamas will drag out each negotiation, continue attacking Israel and try to make Israelis miserable enough to give up the fight, as many seem to be doing even now.
A ceasefire might sound as if it is a "good thing" that benefits everyone -- understandably if a friend or family member is a hostage. The problem seems to be the Hamas demand that Israel should leave the "Philadelphi corridor" on the border between Gaza and Egypt, so that Hamas, backed by its patrons Qatar and Iran, can resume smuggling weapons and ammunition into Gaza, rearm, rebuild and attack again.
The murder of six more Israeli hostages -- Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino -- captured by the terrorist group Hamas appears to be leading many Israelis, along with most of their ever-gullible media (remember the Oslo Accords?) to think that if only their government would agree to a ceasefire, they would get their hostages back. Most people, at least in the West, would desperately like that -- not just the American ones -- all 120 of them, especially before Hamas finishes murdering them. If the Israelis really want their hostages back, however, they had better think again.
For a start, the recent demonstrations demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, look suspiciously like a "new, improved" version of the demonstrations of 2023, against the government's attempts to bring much needed accountability back to Israel's Supreme Court. Those demonstrations were reportedly funded by the US State Department to the tune of "tens of thousands of dollars" of US taxpayer money, funneled to an Israel not-for-profit organization, the Movement for Quality Government.
If the Biden-Harris administration is not behind the current demonstrations, it would be a pleasant surprise. The US, even before the Obama administration, has been unable to resist interfering in Israel's internal affairs -- such as trying to prevent Netanyahu from being elected and then trying to push him out. In 2015, Netanyahu's address to the US Congress about Iran's nuclear weapons program was apparently organized without consulting President Barack Obama, and, except during the Trump administration, the same US policy appears to have continued unchecked. During Netanyahu's visit to the US in July 2024, not one senior administration official greeted Netanyahu upon his arrival in Washington or attended his address to Congress.
The Biden-Harris administration has even tried to direct Israels war efforts. Vice-President Kamala announced in March that she had "studied the maps" and that it would be a "mistake" for Israel to enter Rafah -- which it did soon after, with breathtaking success.
What is all this really about? Even though the Biden-Harris administration would certainly appreciate all those the anti-Israeli votes they hope will be coming their way on November 5th, above all -- should Harris win the presidency -- she, like President Joe Biden, appears eager to present the world with a Palestinian State.
For the full 8 page article, please click here or click on the link below for the pdf file:
John Richardson is based in the United States.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Pictured: A large Hamas tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, beneath the Philadelphi Corridor, discovered by the Israeli military on August 4, 2024. (Photo source: IDF)
Comentarios