Conservative criminal defense attorney and columnist Marina Medvin called it a "devastating Hostage negotiations update" because that's exactly what it is. In the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Hamas terror organization, Hamas officials now say that "they wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, dead or alive."
"Instead, the militant group has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of the deal in the initial phase of the proposed plan," according to the Wall Street Journal.
The admission by the militant group, which took more than 240 hostages during its lethal Oct. 7 attack on Israel, has heightened fears among families of the hostages, who are piling pressure on the Israeli government to cut a deal with Hamas that would pause the fighting and free at least some of the remaining captives.
Medvin added, "Israeli military did not comment on estimates of how many hostages may remain alive."
Sometimes, there's nothing worse than being right, and this is one of those times.
Two weeks ago, I came to the sad conclusion that Hamas probably has "few or no living hostages left to trade. Through abuse, neglect, or just Hamas terrorists getting its thrills, the hostages might all be dead."
The hostages include — or, I should say, included — six Americans that, to the best of my knowledge, Presidentish Joe Biden has never raised as an issue with Hamas. I also can't find any record of Biden mentioning any of those six Americans by name. That might be an unprecedented (but certainly intentional) lapse by an American president. It also gives lie to Biden's claim that his support for Israel is "ironclad" since he won't provide as little as lip service to Hamas' American hostages.
As painful as it must be not to be able to bury their dead, Israel must refuse this pathetic excuse for an offer. Israel, with its devotion to saving lives, has long been willing to trade captured (and even convicted) Palestinian terrorists for kidnapped Israelis. Sometimes those trades are incredibly lopsided — five terrorists for each Israeli, or eight, or ten...
But if Israel were to start trading for dead bodies? If it's even remotely possible to make this terrible situation worse, that would do it.
Look at the desperation Hamas has put on display here for all the world to see. This is an organization — at least the part of it trapped in the Gaza Strip — on the ropes. It is also an organization that the Biden administration wants to give "six to eight weeks" of breathing space via a unilateral Israeli ceasefire.
There's absolutely nothing left for Israel to do but quickly finish the nasty business of clearing Hamas out of Gaza. And as I wrote two weeks ago, when the order does come down, you couldn't blame Israeli soldiers for adopting a take-no-prisoners attitude now that Hamas has murdered all of theirs.
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