Biden may be a scumbag and incompetent, but, I think we can all hope that the deal holds and the hostages will all be released
US President Joe Biden announces Gaza ceasefire, hostage deal
President Joe Biden, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, officially announced the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas from the White House on Wednesday afternoon just after Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani announced the deal from Doha.
“It’s a very good afternoon because, at long last, I can announce a ceasefire deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas after more than 15 months of conflict,” Biden said. “That began with [Hamas’s] brutal massacre on October the seventh, more than 15 months of terror for the hostages, their families, the Israeli people.”
There was no other way for this war to end other than a hostage deal, Biden said, adding he’s deeply satisfied this day has finally come for the people of Israel and the families waiting in agony and for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war.
Biden said the elements of this deal were what he laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the UN Security Council.
He explained the deal is structured in three phases. Phase one will last six weeks and includes a full and complete cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women, the elderly, and the wounded.
The Jerusalem Post explains how the whole think works. Will it? Biden was asked if Trump had anything to do with it, and, yeah, you know that Hamas is seriously concerned about what happens when Trump takes office
(Fox News) IDF Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi says “two things” changed regarding the Israel-Hamas cease-fire agreement after fifteen months of conflict in the Middle East.
“This deal has been on the table since May last year and Hamas opposed it completely. Why? There was no real pressure on Hamas,” Avivi told “Your World” on Wednesday. “Israel wanted to stop some of the humanitarian aid, especially some of the gasoline, but the administration wouldn’t let us do that. So Israel has no major leverage on them.”
“What’s changed is two things,” Avivi told Fox News. “One, Israel defeated Hezbollah and Hezbollah cannot support Hamas anymore. Also, Syria fell. Iran is weaker. But the big change is President Trump’s threat.”
“Once President Trump threatened them, that if they don’t release hostages, there will be hell… I think they understand that if they don’t get a deal now, the chances of getting a good deal for them will be very, very low, if at all. And therefore, they made their own assessment, and they are inclined to do the deal, thinking that they’ll maximize what they can get now and not wait to see what ‘hell’ means,” Avivi stated.
Will Hamas play games when Trump takes office? We shall see. And, if it holds, let Biden have the win.
Our esteemed host began:
No, we don’t all hope that.
This alleged deal — and there are stories that Hamas has tried to change it, and Prime Minister Netanyahu will postpone cabinet meeting to approve it — would be like a ceasefire deal which stopped the Red Army outside Berlin and let Adolf Hitler and his top henchmen fly to Uruguay to live out their lives in safety and security. More, it would compel the allies to release over a thousand top Nazis to flee.
There are 98 hostages remaining, of which the Israelis believe between 20 and 33 are still alive. In return, Israel would release over a thousand Palestinian terrorists already in captivity.
Well, that’s happened before, as the Israelis traded 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for one captured IDF soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, and one of those 1,027 released terrorists was Yahya Sinwar. The distinguished and now late Mr Sinwar planned and executed the October 7th attack, which killed 1,198 people and seized 251 hostages. Was that a good and wise trade for Israel?
President Ronald Reagan, who would never negotiate with terrorists, negotiated with terrorists for the release of hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon, in exchange for military weapons. He got those hostages released, but the whole sad episode established a value for seizing hostages, and after the hostages were released, Hezbollah went ahead and kidnapped more.
Why wouldn’t they? President Reagan established a concrete value for holding hostages!
Any ceasefire which allows Hamas to continue to exist, and their leaders to remain alive, simply means that Hamas can regroup and try again. When you have a colony of roaches in your home and you call Orkin to exterminate them, you are not satisfied if five or ten roaches remain alive, because you know that they’ll simply reproduce and your roach problem will explode again.