Trump Must Be Bold To Free Hamas Hostages

Have you not noticed that over the past few weeks President Biden and his minions have been very quiet about pressuring Israel for a cease-fire in Gaza? Israeli forces have taken the fight into Hamas’s last stronghold — the city...

The post Trump Must Be Bold To Free Hamas Hostages appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Have you not noticed that over the past few weeks President Biden and his minions have been very quiet about pressuring Israel for a cease-fire in Gaza?

Israeli forces have taken the fight into Hamas’s last stronghold — the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip — and not one of the Biden crew is saying anything about it.

Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and CIA Director William Burns have all been shuttling between meetings with Israeli PM Netanyahu and “representatives” of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist network.

They have been siding with the Hamas terrorists because 100,000 Muslim Democratic primary voters in Michigan voted not for Biden but for “uncommitted” in Michigan’s Democrat February primary. Biden has, since then, had little sympathy for our only real ally in the Middle East and has supported the Dems’ Hamas Caucus — Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, Ilhan Omar, and their ilk — instead. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Putin’s Audacious Murderers)

Biden withheld U.S. smart bombs from Israel and other members of his team have put maximum diplomatic pressure on Israel to sign some sort of temporary peace agreement with the Hamas terrorists. Such an agreement would have left Hamas victorious after its devastating attack on Israel. That would be more than unjust: it would be destructive of Israel’s future and our own national security.

But now, as the Wall Street Journal points out acerbically, Biden and his incompetents have finally figured out that it’s Hamas that is blocking peace, not Israel.

Biden’s idiots have reluctantly come to that conclusion because, since about late May, Israel has been agreeing to their formulas for a cease-fire while Hamas has continued to refuse to release its hostages.

For the record, Hamas killed at least thirty-two American citizens in its October 7 attack on Israel. They also took eight American hostages, only five of whom are believed to be alive. They are: Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Keith Siegel, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and Omer Neutra. Some, perhaps all, hold both U.S. and Israeli citizenship. At least three died in Hamas custody: Gadi Haggari, his wife Judith Haggari, and Hayden Chen. Those who killed them should be made to assume room temperature.

As Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has pointed out, the Rafah operation was delayed by months of diplomatic efforts by the U.S. but went ahead on May 6. Katz said, “And we were right. Everyone knows it now, even the U.S., because everyone warned that it would be a catastrophe. It’s a war, yes. It’s not a picnic. But they said that it would take four months to evacuate the population. It took only days.” As the WSJ reported, more than a million Gazans quickly evacuated Rafah to designated safe zones.

Israel is fighting our war, not just theirs. If any doubt remained it was erased by the Israeli Saturday air strike on Yemen.  We have had an aircraft carrier battle group in the Red Sea for months, trying — unsuccessfully — to deter the Houthis (another Shiite group and a proxy for Iran) from attacking Red Sea shipping. Our ships have successfully shot down a lot of Houthi missiles and drones, but the strikes on shipping continue. The carrier group — which will remain on station and be replaced soon by another — has had no deterrent effect.

That has now probably come to an end. After a Houthi drone killed a man in Tel Aviv, Israel struck the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, substantially disabling the port and probably crippling Iranian shipments of arms to the Houthis. Israel is fighting our wars, not just theirs.

Biden hasn’t done anything effective to get our hostages back. And not only from Hamas.

The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has just been sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison on phony spy charges. Mark Swiden and Kai Li, both U.S. citizens, are wrongfully detained by China, also presumably on phony charges. Those situations are different from the Hamas hostages’ because they are held, albeit unjustly, under some legal process.

Trump Options on the Hostages

Should he become president once again, Trump can and should greatly increase diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions against both Russia and China to get these people back. Toward that end, he said something in his convention speech which is very much worth noting.

Trump said, “To the entire world, I tell you this: We want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.”

He didn’t say which hostages he was speaking of, but it’s obvious that the five still kept by Hamas are at the top of the list. They must be because their lives are in the greatest danger.

If Trump is returned to the White House, he will have any number of options to deal with Hamas and its benefactor, Iran.

First and foremost, we should offer U.S. forces to help the Israelis find and rescue all those still held by Hamas. Our SEAL Team Six and Delta Force are damned good at it. The Israelis may not need this help, but Trump should offer it nevertheless.

Second, whatever intelligence resources we have should be brought to bear on finding the hostages. Again, the Israelis may not need this help but we should bring it to bear.

Third would be for Trump to end our pressure on Israel to sign the ridiculous Biden cease-fire accords. He could — and should — make it perfectly clear that Hamas is our enemy as is Iran, and that Israel has a blank check in its efforts against both.

Fourth, Trump could send USAF and USN air forces to help Israel in its second-front war against Iranian-backed Hizballah forces in Lebanon. Again, Israel may not want the help but it should be offered nevertheless.

Fifth would be for Trump to re-instate his “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions which wrecked the Iranian economy. Biden has let them off too many times.

Those of us of a certain age remember clearly the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1980. Iranian “students” seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held fifty-two hostages for 444 days. It ended on the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated president with the release of all of the hostages.

It’s too much to hope for that Trump’s inauguration would result in the release of the five Americans still held hostage by Hamas. Yayah Sinwar, the leader of Hamas forces in Gaza, has been in hiding, probably in Hamas tunnels, since the October 7 attack. He has probably surrounded himself with hostages both American and Israeli to use them as human shields. (READ MORE: Trump Is Lucky, but The Secret Service Blew It)

Sinwar must be dealt with and not gently. Israeli forces — and their special forces — are excellent and are on the hunt for Sinwar. Whatever assistance we can give them should be brought to bear immediately.

Biden has been too politically scared to do this. He is weak in mind and in the strategic and tactical senses. As this column has often pointed out, the late Donald Rumsfeld often said that weakness is provocative. If he gets the chance, Trump will be far stronger.

Bringing our hostages home should — and probably will — be Trump’s immediate task.

The post Trump Must Be Bold To Free Hamas Hostages appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.