Ruthie Blum: The art of the ‘no deal’ with Hamas The “window of opportunity” to secure the “last chance” release of the hostages isn’t closing. Yahya Sinwar never opened it.
https://www.jns.org/the-art-of-
Israeli negotiators returned home on Friday night, after two days in Doha with mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States. The one party absent was Hamas.
Nevertheless, President Joe Biden seemed to think that this was a minor detail not worth mentioning. Tardy to arrive at an event at the Oval Office—after signing a proclamation for the establishment of a national monument commemorating the 1908 Springfield Race Riot in Illinois—he told guests and reporters, “One of the reasons I was late for y’all is because I was dealing with the ceasefire effort in the Middle East. And we are closer than we’ve ever been.”
Adding a caveat, he said, “I don’t want to jinx anything. But, as my grandfather said, ‘By the grace of God and with a lot of luck, we might have something.’ But we’re not there yet. We’re much, much closer than we were three days ago.”
This particular trip to fantasy land can’t be chalked up to dementia. Team Biden has been consistent in its push to end “Operation Swords of Iron” since Oct. 7—weeks before any Israeli boots stepped on the ground in Gaza.
Leaving aside his administration’s open hostility toward the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and overt desire to topple the longest-serving leader in Israel’s history, America under this crew has an aversion to asserting its power in the world. This explains its refusal to step up to the plate on Oct. 8 and let Hamas honcho Yahya Sinwar know in no uncertain terms that he’d better cough up the hostages, especially those with U.S. citizenship, or else.
No, the pressure from the outset was on Israel to tread softly and then engage in negotiations with the barbarians who raped, beheaded, tortured, slaughtered and kidnapped men, women, children and babies. In fairness, Washington isn’t the worst offender in this regard; compared to the United Nations and international courts, the powers-that-be in D.C. are positively Pollyanna-like.
Nevertheless, the obsession on the part of the current White House and State Department with diplomacy as a solution to every conflict hasn’t waned for a second, especially as the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust—coupled with continuous rocket-and-drone bombardment on the Jewish state from every border—were perpetrated by Iran-backed terrorists. Given the major U.S. efforts to appease the ayatollah-led regime responsible for the regional war that is on the way to becoming a global one, it’s not surprising that Biden’s boys (and girl) want its ally, Israel, to fall in line and follow suit.
These are the very people who boycotted or frowned during Netanyahu’s speech last month to a joint session of the U.S. Congress. They’re the members who were incensed with his address to the same body in 2015. As reminder, the latter involved explaining the perils of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic that the Obama administration ended up signing and from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2018.
As the left continually tries to obfuscate, Netanyahu’s appeal against entering into the disastrous agreement led to the Abraham Accords five years later. It was the Israeli premier’s tough stance against Tehran, despite President Barack Obama’s wrath, which served as the impetus for the Gulf states to wish to join an anti-Iran axis with Israel and the U.S. under Donald Trump.
At the moment, none of this is relevant to the Democratic Party heading to its national convention and desperate to win the election in November. Hence, all the talk about this being the “last chance” to save the living hostages held by Sinwar’s goons in Hamas—as well as in the clutches of “noncombatant” Gazans—and return the remains of the dead to Israel is disingenuous.
To be clear: The urgency to free them is genuine. Each passing day is critical for the people suffering at the hands of the physical, sexual and psychological abusers keeping the captives locked up in tunnels and tenements.
The trouble is that Biden—or the choir suddenly promoting Vice President Kamala Harris as the Second Coming of Obama, if not Christ—has a different kind of deadline in mind. With the cries of the devastated families who’ve been in this limbo for more than 10 months bolstering the “Bring Them Home” campaign aimed at Netanyahu, the copywriters adopted an additional slogan about time running out before the “window of opportunity” closes.
It sounds more like an end-of-the-year blowout sale at a department store than a hostage negotiation. But then, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are calling it a “ceasefire agreement” in the making. Naturally.
Taking credit for ending the war before Americans go to the polls in less than three months is really what’s on their agenda. It’s actually what they mean by plugging the “last chance” and “window of opportunity” narratives.
Never mind that forcing a bogus arrangement involves leaving Hamas, or a similar entity with a different Palestinian name, at the helm in the terrorist enclave. Tying it to a so-called “de-escalation” of Iranian and Hezbollah attacks against Israel makes it more palatable to Western gullibility.
Sinwar is the epitome of evil, but he’s not the least bit stupid. He’s fully aware of the carry-on against the continuation of the fighting to remove him from power. He also knows that America wants a deal at any cost.
It is thus that he didn’t dispatch representatives to Doha; won’t send anyone to Cairo this week; and rejected the components of the latest proposal about which Biden is buoyed and the Israeli delegation to the talks said are cause for “cautious optimism.”
The reality is that America and Israel are engaging in mediation with themselves, while Qatar and Egypt act as dishonest brokers. Sinwar’s interest in helping the process to anybody’s satisfaction other than his own is zero.
Comments are closed.
