This news is both deeply concerning for those who care about the fate of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th -- and entirely unsurprising, given the endless dishonesty of the terrorist group. Yes, an organization that is willing and eager to slaughter, rape and torture many hundreds of people is also willing and eager to lie -- particularly if it helps them manipulate their way to survival. Having executed the massacre six months ago, Hamas' top priority has been to avoid destruction at the hands of the Israelis. Their best tools for doing so have been the civilian human shields they exploit to make Israel's job as hard as possible, the 'international community' (including the Biden administration, horrifyingly) playing along with their supporters' manufactured 'genocide' smears, and the hostages.
Hamas has been very willing to talk endlessly about hostage releases, with Israel offering to free hundreds of convicted Palestinian terrorists and violent criminals from prison as part of a deal. But Hamas keeps rejecting deals, including lopsided ones that would at least buy them significant ceasefires, to boot. Why? It now appears as though Hamas knows a lot of their human bargaining chips are dead:
Hamas Negotiators have reportedly told International Meditators in Cairo that it has No Ability to Release the 40 Hostages in the Humanitarian Category (Women, Children, and Elderly) that were included in yesterday’s Ceasefire Proposal because out of the 136 Hostages that remain…
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 8, 2024
It's totally unclear how many hostages remain alive at this point. Hamas seems to have been lying about this for quite some time. It's a safe bet that they have a very good idea, at least broadly speaking, about the relevant status and numbers, but they've decided it's in their interests for the Israelis to be kept guessing and hopeful. Remember, this is the terror group that puts out precise death tolls or women, children and puppies whenever they claim an Israeli airstrike has killed civilians. These numbers are often total fabrications, and sometimes the incidents themselves are lies, too. But Hamas rushes out their propaganda stats lickety-split, under the auspices of the "Gaza Health Ministry," and many in the global media dutifully regurgitate them.
Yet these very same people supposedly don't know where dozens of their most valuable commodities -- guarded at gunpoint for months -- are located? It now looks quite likely that Israel has been negotiating against themselves for quote some time, with Hamas leading them to believe that more hostages remain breathing than is actually the case. This evil deception has been aided and abetted by the 'International community' letting them get away with no verification processes from the likes of the International Red Cross, which has comported itself disgracefully:
This is the most vile part and how you know that the Israeli side is always being played and that the other countries involved are not serious. You can't have a discussion when a list of the hostages who are alive is not present. But it's also unconscionable it came to this, and… https://t.co/Keg3dL8ojf
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) April 8, 2024
This is exactly why many of us said that confirmation and Red Cross visits should be a prerequisite for any hostage deal discussion. The Biden admin insisted that Israel remove this precondition. https://t.co/0ALFi2m9I7
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 8, 2024
Israelis have been accusing the International Red Cross of “failing to act to fulfill its mandate and moral duty to visit the kidnapped Israelis held in Gaza, assure their wellbeing and fight for their release” since late last year. For this reason, a few months ago, the Israeli government intentionally cut the group out of an agreement over medication deliveries: "Frustrated by the ICRC’s failure to perform its most basic functions of seeking proof of life and verification of medical treatment, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'deliberately bypassed the Red Cross in helping arrange' the deliveries, the Associated Press reported." Israel now faces the prospect that many of the hostages they've hoped and prayed could still be saved have been killed or allowed to die. They have no idea who remains, or where. Their negotiations over a sick hostages-for-terrorists swap have been fruitless, with Hamas saying 'no' to everything.
The obvious move is to do what is necessary, go into Rafah, and uproot Hamas' final stronghold in Gaza. But this operation has been repeatedly delayed under intense pressure from the Biden administration, which has spent much more time and energy criticizing Israel recently than it has doing anything to guarantee the dismantling of Hamas. Hamas, it apparently must be said, murdered dozens of Americans on October 7th, and is still believed to hold five American hostages. The disturbing reality is that Team Biden has become fixated on winning the votes of people who support or sympathize with the terrorists -- like this:
At International Al-Quds Day Rally in Dearborn, Michigan Protesters Chant “Death to America!”; Speakers at the Rally: America Is One of the “Rottenest Countries” on Earth; Israel Is ISIS, Nazis, a Cancer pic.twitter.com/B6hMlaKfi5
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 7, 2024
“Imam Khomeini, who declared the International Al-Quds Day, this is why he would say to pour all of your chants and all of your shouts upon the head of America.”
— Sarah Raviani (@sarahraviani) April 7, 2024
“Death to America! Death to America!”
Hearing these chants at an Al-Quds Day rally in the United States is deeply… pic.twitter.com/OtWIx6JEDG
A question:
A few months ago, President Biden & Gov. Whitmer indignantly condemned a WSJ op/ed calling Dearborn, MI, "America's Jihad Capital."
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 9, 2024
A few days ago, participants in a pro-Jihad rally in Dearborn chanted "death to America" in Arabic.
Have we heard anything from Biden or Whitmer? pic.twitter.com/jjDU3aw6HJ
If top elected Democrats felt compelled to condemn speech that they found offensive in this realm, do they not feel singularly compelled to condemn, you know, "death to America" chanting...inside America? Or are the votes of the chanters and the chanters' friends too valuable to speak up? I'll leave you with my interview with the parents of a young American hostage taken by Hamas on October 7th (another American hostage's wife has given birth to a daughter while he's been in captivity), as well as my attempt to re-center the broken Gaza discourse around facts and reality:
Six months + one day ago, Hamas terrorists kidnapped Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The 23-year-old 🇺🇸 citizen was at the Nova music festival in 🇮🇱 when he was wounded and stolen. He is still being held hostage. I interviewed his parents this morning on @foxandfriends: pic.twitter.com/DSCZASrC7o
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 8, 2024
Half a year later, much of the discourse around Israel’s war against Hamas downplays or entirely ignores the violent abomination of October 7th. Every ounce of human suffering in Gaza is the responsibility of the terrorist perpetrators of that massacre. My on-air commentary: 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/gJ6xvSwN9R
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 8, 2024
Also, since the International Red Cross received some deserved criticism above, please witness the disgusting descent of Amnesty International, a left-wing organization that has shed all credibility:
Good community note. pic.twitter.com/UdLylC7ZdX
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 9, 2024
Meanwhile, the propaganda machine churns away, spewing garbage like this into the ether, in furtherance of multiple depraved narratives:
Intersectional brain rot pic.twitter.com/7q99X8zFwz
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 9, 2024
Join the conversation as a VIP Member