Two weeks ago I had the sad duty to inform you that most, if not all, of the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 were probably dead. Now, Hamas has confirmed it.
“Today I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo, we are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said on Monday.
He added, “This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen — there is a date.”
But it’s too late.
“According to the first phase of the deal on which the negotiations are taking place,” Barak Ravid reported on Monday, “Hamas is supposed to release 40 hostages alive, including women, soldiers, men over 50 and men under 50 who are in a serious medical condition.”
“Israel made it clear that if Hamas agreed to commit to this point, Israel would agree to far-reaching compromises on the issue of the return of Palestinian residents to the northern Gaza Strip,” but Hamas says that after six months of hellish captivity, 40 such hostages are no longer alive.
Netanyahu forgot his Macbeth: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.”
I’m not trying to Monday Morning Quarterback here, but perhaps it didn’t need to be this way. A quicker war would have meant higher casualties but better odds of rescuing the hostages.
Trying to please the Biden administration, the Israeli government took a go-slow approach to weeding Hamas out of Gaza. Netanyahu’s more careful counteroffensive kept IDF casualties far lower than I expected and it also kept the White House at bay, if only temporarily.
But if the object was to rescue the hostages, Netanyahu clearly failed. Worse, six months gave the Left more than enough time to rally the expected propaganda offensive against Israel. It worked so brilliantly that even Presidentish Joe Biden is now openly siding with Hamas, making demand after demand on Israel — even threatening to cut off American supplies of weapons and ammo — but never on Hamas.
As a result, Israel is now in a worse position than it was the day before Hamas committed its terrible terror invasion on Oct. 7. The country is more isolated than perhaps ever before, the hostages are dead, Hamas remains, and the antisemitic Left (and a few losers on the Right) have sharp new tools to use against Israel.
If they’re bold enough to chant “Death to America!” without repercussion in America’s Midwest, just as they have always done in the Mideast, then Israel must now think and act as though America’s support were always in question. Because thanks to Biden, it is.
The only thing left to do is for Netanyahu to order the full fury of the IDF into Rafah and finish off whatever is left of Hamas in Gaza. Israel has nothing left to lose.
Recommended: How We Got to ‘Death to America’ in Dearborn (Hint: There’s an Obama Connection)
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