Thursday, June 13, 2024
From Ian:
Bret Stephens: The U.S.-Backed Ceasefire Plan Ensures Hamas's Survival
Bret Stephens: The U.S.-Backed Ceasefire Plan Ensures Hamas's Survival
In 1977, Ronald Reagan shared his thoughts on the Cold War: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win, and they lose." What is Joe Biden's theory of victory?Jake Wallis Simons: The West would rather stand with terrorists than Israel
His style of governance is to manage threats, not defeat them. He believes Israel has a right to protect itself. But his previous insistence that Hamas has to be defeated has given way to a U.S.-backed ceasefire resolution that effectively ensures Hamas's survival.
He has vowed that Iran will never get nuclear weapons. But in the face of Iran's refusal to give international inspectors access to its nuclear facilities, the U.S. worked to soften a diplomatic censure.
Biden needs some wins - real, not cosmetic, ones. The Gaza ceasefire isn't it. It merely punts a problem that needs to be solved: Hamas's continued grip over the territory. It begins with a six-week pause in the fighting that might lead to the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
But it risks falling apart because no Israeli government will retreat from all of Gaza while Hamas retains power, and Hamas won't release all the hostages or meet the deal's other terms while Israeli forces remain in the territory.
Israel is hardly the only country that has enacted spectacular release missions in the past. In 1980, the CIA, with Canadian support, smuggled six diplomats out of Tehran while posing as a film crew researching a science fiction production. That same year, when gunmen took 26 hostages at the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, the SAS abseiled from the roof and enacted a daring rescue.The International Community Must Back Israel's Objectives in Gaza
By contrast, recent decades have instead seen an increasing reliance on diplomatic jaw-jaw, often accompanied by hefty ransoms. Last year, the White House released £4.8 billion into Iranian coffers to secure the freedom of five Americans, raising the future incentive to £940 million per hostage. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was set free in 2022 after Downing Street had paid the Iranians £400 million, supposedly a debt that had been owed since the Seventies. You could hear the chuckles in Tehran.
It is true that the Israelis have often paid a heavy price in return for the release of captives: there was the deal in November to free 150 Palestinian convicts in return for 50 hostages. In 2011, 1,027 prisoners – among them a certain Yahya Sinwar, the future architect of October 7 – were controversially released in exchange for one kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Israeli citizens are constantly asked what they can do for their country; this is what the state pledges in return. But Israelis also know that if the opportunity for direct rescue arises, the best commandos in the world will be standing by, no matter the risks.
Why have British and American forces not directly joined the IDF, either in supporting roles, as we did against Islamic State, or in the air or sea, or to participate in special forces operations? That would have sent a powerful message to our jihadi enemy that the West stands resolute, shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of our hostages and our people.
The RAF and American airforce magnificently helped thwart the Iranian missile assault in April. But what about British and American captives? What about destroying Hamas? When he announced the building of an American humanitarian pier, President Biden was a pains to point out that “no US boots will be on the ground”. Why? Victory over Hamas is squarely in our national interest. True collaboration could facilitate a swifter end to the conflict.
From the point of view of Hamas, a deal with the Biden administration would further strain US-Israeli relations. It would pile pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of neglecting a hostage agreement. Terrorists know that the sowing of discord between allies is a powerful weapon. That Hamas places such a premium on doing so holds a lesson that we should urgently learn.
The hostages are international. Our enemy is the same. If jihadism is to be defeated, Western unity – and strength – is vital.
Last week, the Biden administration, along with 16 other countries, called for Israel to end the war in Gaza without completing its objectives and effectively to enter into a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would pave the way to a Palestinian state, which would be the ultimate award for the horrific war crimes committed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The joint statement not only insults Israel and undermines its efforts to achieve victory against Hamas in Gaza, but also emboldens the other enemies of Israel and the Western world who are watching what Israel does to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. Ending the war with Hamas still governing Gaza would send the message that the crimes of Oct. 7 are allowed to go unpunished.
The U.S.-led Marshall Plan to rehabilitate Western Europe after WWII was conditioned on the total de-radicalization of German and Italian society. The international community should expect no less of Gaza.
The statement makes a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. It calls "on the leaders of Israel as well as Hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this deal." In other words, Israel and Hamas are fighting senselessly like two schoolboys in the playground. This is not a democratic ally of the West fighting a just war against a barbaric terrorist organization. It's just hotheads who are going at it and need to be held back by the cooler heads in the neighborhood.
This attitude by countries who are supposed to be Israel's friends and allies can only encourage Iran and its proxies to continue to pursue their policy of aggression against Israel and Israeli targets in the West.
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