I’m Conflicted

Before I go into my view of the momentous release of the 20 live hostages I want it to be very clear that I am happy that they are back home with their families. Extremely happy. I have made it crystal clear that their releases would be welcomed as a great victory for Israel. And I still stand by that comment. If anyone thinks otherwise, please move along. This day has been a long time coming, too long for my taste, but I understand the dynamics of how we got to this point and there is no sense in belaboring it when talking about this event. In my lead for this podcast I think we need to celebrate that 20 innocent lives are out of cruel captivity where they were starved, tortured, and beaten mercilessly for no reason other than they were Jewish. I pray that they will get the treatment they need and they are restored to health to live life, free of their inhuman captors and the barbaric conditions they were subject to. They no longer need to wonder if they will see sunlight again or if their next meal will be their last. They won’t have to endure the insults of the terrorists or their demeaning comments nor will they have to wonder if they will ever see their relatives again. That is all over. And again, I’m happy it is. So why am I conflicted over this time of festivity? Let me tell you.

Broken Promises

I keep seeing people talk of the war being over and now we need to move on to discussions of peace. It all sounds good on paper, but we need to take a step back and see what just really happened. Hamas is also celebrating now. Why is that? Aren’t they on the brink of disarming and being forced to leave power? I read the Trump plan and the release of the hostages is only the start of this plan. Do these terrorists know something I don’t? Don’t get me started on the starving Gazans who miraculously look quite healthy as they trumpet their sudden good fortunes. Hamas wouldn’t have let these hostages go unless they knew that the fighting was really over. They actually said that during the talks. They wanted ironclad guarantees that Israel wouldn’t begin to decimate them again. Apparently they got those assurances by the US among others. They already broke their promise to turn over all the 28 bodies saying they only could find four. Hogwash. These were hostages they meticulously tracked ever since they kidnapped them. There is no way they suddenly lost them. They knew their value in a culture that values redeeming them by having proper burials. So for them to not preserve the bodies is not believable at all. These terrorists have one goal: inflict as much pain and sorrow on as many Jews as they can. Even in defeat they want to make sure that Israelis and their government cry as many tears of sorrow as they can. And for 24 families they have to wait longer to bury those loved ones. Hostage forums all are demanding that the ceasefire be halted until they all are sent back. So much for Hamas agreeing to all of the deal. And about the talk of peace.

There Is No Peace

All I’m hearing is Trump saying things like Israel won the war and now we need to talk about peace going forward. He must think that Hamas will honor the rest of the agreement and surrender both its weapons and its power in Gaza, two things needed for real peace. But these terrorists aren’t acting like they are defeated and they certainly are saying that they have no intention of ending their fighting as we see in an article from WND.com:

A major milestone was reached Monday in the campaign for peace in the Middle East, specifically between Israel and the terrorists of Hamas who attacked the democratic nation in 2023, slaughtering 1,200 and kidnapping hundreds more. The last 20 living hostages were released by Hamas.

The return of the hostages then is only meant to start the process of peace:

It came as part of a multi-point plan developed under the administration of President Donald Trump that called for the release of the hostages. Future points will set up a governing organization to make decisions for Gaza, where Hamas has ruled in recent years.

US President Trump then blamed the previous administrations apart from his for him doing the cleanup in Israel:

Trump, in addressing Israel's Knesset on the agreement between Israel and Hamas, pointed out that previous American administrations, under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, failed in pursuit of that very goal.

"All of the countries in the Middle East that could have what we're doing now, it could have happened a long time ago, but it was strangled and set back almost irretrievably by the administrations of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden," Trump said, citing the then-"hatred" toward Israel.

"We had a very weak [Biden] administration. Worst president in the history of our country by far, and Barack Obama was not far behind, by the way," Trump said.

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

While Trump is making hay with his political enemies he needs to recognize that he should be keeping his eyes on the terrorists:

The violence, however, may not be gone forever. Previous peace pauses often have been broken up by violence of the Islamists, and some of those groups issued a warning even as the peace deal was beginning to take effect.

"Factions stressed that they have no intention of laying down their weapons, and that they plan to continue military activity to achieve their objectives," explained a report at the Middle East Media Research Institute.

They are actually saying the opposite of laying down their weapons and leaving:

The statement from various "factions" said, "At this decisive historic moment, we reiterate and emphasize our loyalty to the martyrs, to the prisoners, to the wounded, and to the resistance fighters, and our adherence to our people's rights to their land, homeland, holy sites, and dignity. [We also emphasize] our determination to continue with the resistance in all its forms until our rights are achieved – first and foremost the removal of the occupation, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent state with full sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital."

Who is saying this? Well the very groups that agreed to disarm and depart the area:

The statement was identified as coming from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They also rejected "foreign guardianship" of the Gaza Strip and demanded to be part of the region's administration. That means, the report said, Hamas would be rejecting vital components of Trump's peace plan, even though they officially had agreed, and had released hostages as part of the bargain.

In short they are using this peace plan to get exactly what they wanted all along:

"Underlining that the factions' negotiating team was keeping in mind 'our people's demands to stop the war of extermination,' it called this first stage of the ceasefire 'an essential step towards the urgent demand of our people – a final cessation of the criminal war, an end to the aggression against Gaza, the withdrawal of the occupation, and the lifting of the siege,'" the report said. The factions suggested that international oversight was only for reconstruction and development.

Now I think you see why I’m hesitant to jump on the peace bandwagon. This hudna is just a ruse by these terrorists to stop them from being annihilated and there is no way they would have released the hostages unless they saw a way to get what they wanted. Before long Trump is going to have to realize that getting a Nobel Peace prize has to take a backseat to actually destroying Hamas. Unless he has a bigger plan no one knows about Hamas played him like a fiddle this time. Diplomacy will never defeat terrorism. Only sheer force will.