On Hamas Held Hostages

[Kathianne]

I have to agree with author/military view. I'm not certain that I ever think it's a good idea to swap terrorists for hostages, even without war. However, when the atrocities of 10/7 were committed, that option should have been taken off the table, when it was clear exactly what Hamas had done.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/do-not-hold-israel-hostage


Shlomo BrodyDo Not Hold Israel Hostage
Hamas seeks to use captives as human shields. The international community shouldn’t let them.


/ Eye on the News / Public Safety, Politics and law, The Social Order
Oct 27 2023
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Over 220 Israeli citizens, soldiers, and foreign residents have been held in Gaza since Hamas’s horrific raid on October 7. Some, particularly those severely wounded in the initial attack, have likely died, with their corpses being held for ransom. Many, however, are alive, as widely shared videos of gloating Gazans confirm.


Israel has long cared deeply for captives and made lopsided deals to bring its soldiers home. In 2011, for example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to secure from Hamas the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who had spent five years in captivity. Yet 2023 poses an unprecedented dilemma for Israel. Never before has it fought on enemy territory when so many of its own people could be endangered by its bombs and bullets.


Some argue that Israel must adjust its military actions to ensure it does not harm captives held in unknown places (likely underground tunnels) within the Gaza strip. Others say that Israel should not let itself be held hostage by Hamas’s tactics and must proceed based on military calculations alone. I am inclined to side with the second view, partly because we don’t know how our military strikes will affect the captives, but largely because the captives’ safety must be considered in the context of protecting all Israeli citizens’ security.


Consider a few aspects of this dilemma, which show why Israel should prioritize military victory.


Should Israel delay a ground invasion to allow international negotiators time to win the release of some hostages? It has been nearly three weeks since Israel was attacked and massed its soldiers on the Gaza border, but Israeli ground troops have yet to cross the fence. Some media outlets claim that Israel is waiting to see if Qatar–U.S. negotiations result in the freeing of more hostages. Four hostages have been set free so far, including two Americans and two Israeli senior citizens. Cryptic reports mention a prospective deal to release a larger number of captives, perhaps up to 50.


These delays play into Hamas’s hands. The longer Israel waits, the more the world forgets the atrocities that brought this conflict. The story becomes the captives, not the necessity of destroying Hamas.


Even if Hamas slowly releases some captives, they will be sure to get something in return, and they are unlikely to make concessions to Israel. Without Western pressure, Hamas likely will prioritize releasing those captives who are foreign citizens (including many Southeast Asian field workers) or dual citizens with Western passports. This “selection” process will outrage many Israelis, and rightly so.


Israel may need time to plan its ground invasion and continue air strikes that weaken Hamas’s resistance. Yet it cannot allow its military and diplomatic plan to be held hostage by these negotiations, in which Hamas holds the power.


Another key matter is Israel’s negotiating tactics. Should Israel supply fuel or release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for terrorists?


Israel continues to supply water, medicine, and food as a humanitarian gesture to Palestinians, even as Hamas has not given the International Red Cross access to the captives. Israel rightly refuses, however, to allow into Gaza fuel necessary for rocket launching or to ventilate Hamas’s elaborate underground tunnel network. UN leaders protest that Gazan hospitals are running out of fuel—a tragedy brought upon it by Hamas, which, according to the IDF, continues to maintain its military fuel supply. In fact, UNWRA, the UN relief organization for Palestinian refugees, has accused Hamas of stealing its fuel supply, intended for civilians. Hamas ensures that any relief fuel will go to its militants, and Israel cannot play into that trap. The UN should stop outrageously demanding that Israel provide a dual military-civilian resource as part of “humanitarian” gestures.

...

[Gunny]

I have to agree with author/military view. I'm not certain that I ever think it's a good idea to swap terrorists for hostages, even without war. However, when the atrocities of 10/7 were committed, that option should have been taken off the table, when it was clear exactly what Hamas had done.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/do-not-hold-israel-hostageIn a straight up, 1 for 1 swap? I'd do it. Armies have done it since armies were invented. Yes, you have to go to the trouble of killing them later. It still gives noncombatant hostages a chance.

Now if you're talking one-side deals like Obama's and Biden's with Iran? Not a chance.

[Kathianne]

this seems like the right place for this:

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2023/10/30/cease-fire-with-hamas-ygbkm-says-n588648


Cease-Fire with Hamas? YGBKM, Says ... Update: Hamas Releases Hostage VideoED MORRISSEY 11:21 AM on October 30, 2023

Cease-Fire with Hamas? YGBKM, Says ...
Give credit where due, but don’t expect the Left to suddenly put aside its maniacal anti-Semitism any time soon. World leaders from the UN to the Vatican to even some of Israel’s Western allies have called for a cease-fire in Gaza. In some cases, they have demanded a unilateral cease fire, or at least conveniently leaving Hamas’ 16-year missile and rocket campaign against Israel unspoken in the demand.


So it is notable indeed to have Hillary Clinton stand up in this moment and say YGBKM. Or at least call out those leaders as idiots, in somewhat more diplomatic terms:




On the Israel-Hamas war, @HillaryClinton said, “People who are calling for a ceasefire now do not understand Hamas. That is not possible.”


She also said Israel has a “right to defend itself” against the terrorist militant group Hamas and that they have an “obligation to limit civilian deaths and casualties of all kinds.”


Don’t be too surprised. Clinton has generally been good on Israel, even if she has managed to get the rest of the region wrong. (Don’t forget that Clinton helped author the disaster in Libya through her own and Barack Obama’s ignorance of the effect it would have on radical Islamist terror, and touched off a massive refugee crisis that still rages in Europe.) The Jerusalem Post recalls Clinton’s tough stand on both Hamas and Fatah in the 2014 war, where outside pressure forced Israel to accept yet another worthless cease-fire:

“They’re trapped by their leadership, unfortunately,” Clinton said of the Palestinians during an interview with Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

“It’s a two-pronged trapping. They have leadership that is committed to resistance and violence. Their actions are geared towards getting newer and better missiles to launch at Israel instead of saying, ‘Hey, let’s try to figure out how we’re going to make your lives better.'”

Clinton also appeared on Charlie Rose’s popular talk show, which airs nationally on PBS. She told Rose that the Israeli response to the constant rocket fire from Gaza was appropriate.

“The Israelis are absolutely right in saying that they can’t just sit there and let rockets rain down,” Clinton told Rose. “They have a missile defense system which is working well but that can’t be certain. Now there are drones being launched from Gaza.”


That was nine years ago, and the aerial attacks never really stopped. Neither have the annihilationist policies in both Hamas and Fatah, but especially Hamas. (Fatah’s just a little more subtle about it.) The pattern of allowing Hamas to start wars and then use civilian populations as shields to get Israel to stop responding, and generally willing shields at that, have produced nothing except more and deadlier attacks on Israel. Not a dime of the aid showered on Hamas for these “cease fires” by the same useful idiots has gone to building peace and prosperity in Gaza, but has only served to make Hamas deadlier for their next round of fundraising off the bodies of dead Jews.


And now we have the same useful idiots trying the same failed policies to protect Hamas and the civilian population that supports them in annihilating Israel. What’s different this time — except for the exposure of jihadi depravity in Hamas’ massacre in southern Israel? And why haven’t these same voices demanded a cease-fire from Hamas during the last nine years of missile and rocket attacks, and threatened to cut off their aid? Those rockets and missiles are fired at Israeli civilian population centers with no discretion whatsoever, and only Israel’s very expensive Iron Dome defense system kept civilian casualties under control. For sixteen years.


New rule: If you weren’t demanding a cease-fire and threatening to withhold aid on October 6, you don’t get to call for a cease-fire on October 8 or any time after. In fact, you should really take advantage of a very good moment in time to keep your mouth shut.


Cease-fires with terrorists don’t work. The last sixteen years has made that abundantly clear, especially in Gaza. Demanding that Israel refrain from fighting a war that its enemy keeps provoking is tantamount to demanding that the Israelis surrender their country to the Iranian-funded terrorists and serve themselves up for the slaughter, either slowly or instantly. The only way to end this war is with Hamas’ destruction or complete surrender, and that choice belongs to the Gazans.


And that choice is now upon them in Gaza City:


Israeli tanks and infantry pushed into the outskirts of Gaza City on Monday and blocked one of the main roads connecting the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the south, witnesses said, in a major advance that appeared aimed at encircling the enclave’s biggest population center.


The push came three days after Israeli ground troops moved into Gaza, marking an escalation of its efforts to eliminate Hamas militants who on Oct. 7 killed some 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 220 in a series of attacks inside Israel.


Hamas complained that the IDF attacked a car carrying civilians and flying a white flag. The IDF replied that they’re not falling for the banana-in-the-tailpipe gag this time:


A witness traveling north on Gaza’s Saladin Road on Monday said he encountered two Israeli tanks and a bulldozer in an agricultural area southeast of Gaza City called Juhor ad-Dik. One of the tanks fired on a taxi that had approached with a white flag on its hood and was trying to turn around, according to the witness and video footage. Residents said the tanks later left the area.


An Israeli military spokesman, Maj. Nir Dinar, said soldiers have no way of knowing who is a militant or a civilian, and they all use the same cars.


“The IDF was not shown any proof that this is a civilian car and there’s no information on who is inside,” Dinar said. “Terrorists use civilian infrastructure like cars. They don’t have tanks or military jeeps.”


The IDF warned civilians to evacuate the area three weeks ago. Over the weekend, they repeated those warnings and declared the entire northern Gaza area a battlefield. Given that Hamas doesn’t wear uniforms or insignia on their persons or on their vehicles, the responsibility for civilian casualties belongs entirely to Hamas, especially as the initiator of a terrorist war of annihilation.


Israel has refused to play this game on Hamas’ terms, having learned their lesson the hardest way possible. The rest of the world should stop demanding that Israel commit suicide, and perhaps Hillary Clinton might force these moral idiots to rethink their stupidity. I don’t say this often, but kudos to Clinton.

Update: Hamas has now released a hostage video, trying to leverage Israeli opinion into ending the war. Three Israeli women reciting claims that Benjamin Netanyahu has committed war crimes and demanding a cease-fire:

In the video, which was released on Hamas’s social networks and described as “a number of Zionist prisoners held by Al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government,” the women accuse the prime minister of failing to act on October 7 to stop the Hamas massacre and now failing to rescue the hostages by enacting a ceasefire. …


“Hello, Bibi Netanyahu,” says the woman in the middle. “We have been in Hamas captivity for 23 days. Yesterday, there was a press conference with the families of the hostages. We know that there was supposed to be a ceasefire. You were supposed to release all of us. You made a commitment to release all of us.”


Netanyahu has already responded:


Netanyahu responded to the video, releasing a statement in which he addressed the women by name. “This is a cruel psychological manipulation by Hamas and ISIS,” he said. “We embrace the families. We are doing everything to bring all the captives and missing individuals back home.”


Not for nothing, but let’s also note that this video itself is a war crime. Hamas claims that this is a military operation, not an attack on civilians, and yet they are using civilians to manipulate a supposed military confrontation. Given the despicable barbarities already committed by Hamas and Gazans in launching this war, this war crime is only a minor point — but it completely undermines claims made by Hamas spokesmen of late that they never targeted civilians. If that were the case, they would have released the women and children they kidnapped rather than manipulate them for political purposes. This is the definition of terrorism.


Update: I’m not including the video because I don’t want to do Hamas’ work. The Jerusalem Post has a link to the video, I believe, if you want to see it. (Also: updated the previous paragraph to extend my thoughts and corrected grammar in the headline update.)

[SassyLady]

This war is exposing rot everywhere.