I don’t like this deal. It was probably agreed upon after intense international pressure, which is tragic, as it shows scores of world leaders cannot identify pure evil. Hamas is a terrorist organization with the backing of most Palestinian civilians. The Gaza Strip is a terrorist factory—there should be no deal until every Hamas dog is put down. The polling proves it: there can be no two-state solution, or even a discussion about it, with Hamas’ approval ratings being this high. The core of the deal centers on Israel releasing terrorists for civilians. Katie had the details last night:
After more than eight hours of deliberations, the Israeli government officially agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas Tuesday night in exchange for 50 hostages who were kidnapped by the terrorist organization and taken to the Gaza Strip on October 7. The rest of the 186 hostages held by Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups will not be released. The public now has the option to appeal the government decision to the Israeli Supreme Court. Ten Americans are among the hostages. It is unclear if they will be released in this deal.
A statement from the Israeli government:
The Government of Israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages. Tonight, the Government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages – women and children – will be released over four days, during which a pause in the fighting will be held. The release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day in the pause.
The Government of Israel, the IDF and the security services will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza.
Ceasefire will start on Thursday, November 23
-50 hostages will be released
-Hostages held by Hamas will be released in increments of 12-13 over the course of a four day ceasefire.
-Israel will release 150 female Palestinian prisoners and minors who have not been convicted of murder but may have been charged with terror related crimes.
-For every additional 10 hostages Hamas may decide to release (after the initial 50 starting Thursday), they will get an additional day of ceasefire. For example, if 30 hostages are released by Hamas, three more days of ceasefire will be awarded. For every additional single hostage Hamas releases, they will receive three Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails and serving time for crimes.
What kind of deal is this? Shin Bet and Mossad better have a plan to kill the terrorists that are about to be released into the wild. The next question regarding this agreement is obvious: how long will it take Hamas to break it? They’ve done it before. It’s why even ardent liberals, like Hillary Clinton, are saying Hamas must go.
We probably should have expected this since the Israeli ground operation to remove Hamas, which has entrenched itself in Gazan sociopolitical life for 17 years, would take time. The images of bombed-out cities, death, and destruction have infuriated pro-terrorist leftists, who dominate cultural bastions of power and influence. Some pause agreement lasting days was going to happen, even though Israel has enacted hours-long ones to allow civilians to reach safety out of Gaza war zones. Hamas gets a breather; therefore, this deal is a win for them.
And with Israeli troops finding the remains of hostages taken on October 7, what are the odds that any of them are still alive?
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