Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Mr. Obvious Has a Question on Hamas Leadership
I’d like to pose a rather obvious question on the topic of how the US conducts itself with regard to Hamas in the current Hamas-Israel conflict. Why doesn’t the USA flex its alleged “superpower” status and simply capture the top leadership of Hamas in Qatar? After all, isn’t Hamas an official terrorist organization according to US policy?
Multiple reports seem to verify the fact that Hamas’s top leadership lives in luxury in Qatar. These top Hamas leaders essentially have no skin in the game and can direct terrorist operations with immunity while sitting on at least $11 billion in far away Qatar. One might observe they are not in physical danger of the conflict and likely worry little about their comfort, much less their safety. If the US was a serious power, that would not be the case.
A basic thought experiment here: imagine that after 9/11, Osama Bin Laden was simply hanging out in a posh resort in Qatar, continuously making public statements and operating al-Qaeda. How would the American people of 20 years ago have taken that? I doubt Americans then would largely shrug their shoulders and give a gesture of resignation with a comment of “oh well, I guess there’s nothing that can be done. Mind as well do nothing about it.”
Of course, there are a few things I can think of as to why the US doesn’t simply lean hard on Qatar in seizing the Hamas leaders. I could anticipate some objections from critics. But either you are a serious power or you are not. The US has military assets in Qatar and is a much bigger international player than Hamas. There is an asymmetrical relationship between the US and Qatar. The idea that the US must be impotent in this matter, even while Hamas holds American hostages, seems absurd.
The method of capturing the Hamas leadership in Qatar could vary. One possibility would be to use US Special Forces along with Intelligence agencies while diplomatically telling Qatar authorities to stand down. Use whatever leverage required on Qatar. Islamic terrorists seem to have no boundaries. It doesn’t make sense to continue the practice of “counting coup” when the other side is “taking scalps.” There seems to be a strong faction in the State Department and federal government that prefers moral vanity over practical morality.
I may not be an expert on foreign policy in the Middle East, but helping to pay for room service to Hamas leadership seems like a poor measure of deterrence to a layman.
Published in Foreign Policy
I expect the Mossad will take care of these people in due course.
“Due course” was probably at least 10 years ago.
If they haven’t yet, gotta wonder why.
Because, to my sorrow, we don’t live in the Marvel universe.
A while back I posted an X link to a video of some Israeli officials saying that the Hamas leadership currently living in luxury are “dead men walking”. I would think the US would stay out of it except to quietly insist that there be no retaliation against Israel.
The question remains, why wasn’t this done years ago?
Pressure from the U. S., pressure they are getting currently? A naïve belief on the part of the Israelis that coexistence was possible? I don’t know.
Qatar seems to be a go-between for negotiations with Hamas. Perhaps this has held us back. We also have a huge airbase in Qatar. Perhaps this has restrained us somewhat. But I’ve also had the same question. Most likely it’s because Joe Biden is a fool and thinks he can bring peace to the Middle East by building a railroad rather than eliminating the enemy.
Hamas is hiding in a hole in the ground and we certainly shouldn’t point out that this is what vermin do lest we dehumanize the inhuman. They have hostages from our country and others with them.
Israel has a legal requirement (as I understand it) to bring hostages home so they don’t get to do the Reagan thing (neither did Reagan as I understand it).
If we kill the vacationing Hamas heads we will almost certainly have dead hostages as a byproduct.
I would be ‘ok’ with that in the sense that Israel is releasing killers who will almost certainly get back to business when they get home in order to gain people back which – unless they finish the job on the other end of the hostage returns – will just perpetuate the whole thing, including the taking of more hostages.
So I imagine we are holding back to help our ally. And because international pressure/international law/Geneva conventions/general democrat ambivalence/offending Qatari sensitivities/losing Arab mellowing wrt Israel.
There is also that weird thing where we have an understanding that government is not a war target per se.
It is my hope that Israel has a list of war criminals and will destroy them when they can. I believe Israel has decided that they’re not going to listen to ‘calls for peace’ this time and will fight until they are satisfied that they have taken the fight out of Palestine. Palestine won’t like it, but they have gone way out of their way to earn it.
“Capture”? How about a cruise missile into their luxury apartments?
Qatar and Iran share ownership of a GIGANTIC natural gas field under the Persian Gulf. Qatar was always the weak sister of the Middle East because it had no oil. But they are now among the nouveau rich from this natural gas. It gives Qatar a new freedom of movement it never enjoyed before. (It also features into the Syria/Russia/Europe situation because the natural route to get these energy supplies to Europe would be a pipeline across Syria. But that would dilute Russia’s influence. So Russia continues to keep the pot boiling in Syria to keep anybody from building that. As things stand, Qatar’s nat-gas travels by ship in huge LNG carriers to Europe) Point is … nobody wants to irritate Qatar.
Okay, so just toss the Hamas leaders out of windows and everyone will think Putin did it.
Well, this involves a lot of high finance, where suicide has become the new normal.
Nobody will believe it’s suicide unless they turn up at Ft Marcy Park.
Surely they simply shot themselves and then hid the gun!
What we should do is capture every Leader we can get our hands on. Then kill them, wrap the bodies in pig fat after stuffing them with pork and sending them to their families.
Go Soviet style.
Hamas leaders might soften their hard line stance on holding back the release of hostages when they are in custody.
I can’t help but to remember the episode when Trump’s administration targeted Iranian military networking hero Qasem Soleimani. The outrage and criticism of that singular deadly strike on a man who had done so much damage to the region (including US interests). The story I heard that even the Bush Admin was afraid to target him (despite his direct effects on destabilizing Iraq) because of “escalation”. So Soleimani basically was off limits to US action and could rack up frequent flier miles going around coordinating his proxies. The boldness of even flying into a country with US military bases with even a US presence around the airport he was flying into. Trump was apparently too unsophisticated to know that you’re not supposed to take out the guy who has sworn to kill your forces. News outlets lamented the Soleimani killing as “illegal”. Whether or not the critics thought the strike was wrong it showed to be effective. Seeing the Iranian leader reduced to tears, then followed by a big screw up by shooting down an airliner put the Iranian regime on its heels for a bit.
My guess is you’d have a similar reaction in the Hamas case.
The ambiguous, broker comments of Qatar are noted. Qatar is certainly multi-faced.
Capture them? Why not whack them with a drone like the U.S. did to the Iranian Guard bigwig? Oh right, Trump was CinC then.
The US built the airbase to support Iraqi Freedom in 2003. I’ve always wondered why we invested so heavily in a country with such questionable allegiances. Maybe we wore out our welcome in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Qatar is the home of Al Jazeera news, which hasn’t done the US any favors that I’m aware of.
It is quite clear to me that we have never been serious about dealing with terrorists. The way to do it is make Terrorism not pay. It is all about the pay off.
I really do think we should hunt their leaders down and kill them and desecrate their bodies in a way that is offensive to their twisted faiths.
If that does not work, we should go after their families. After all, they have no compunction about going after babies. The same applies to suicide bombers. Make it clear that if they succeed, their families will face reprisal. Remember, these families celebrate their members suicide bombing. It is not like they are innocent bystanders. They are encouraging and supporting their little killers.
Trading hostages just makes it more likely to get hostages taken in the future.
Finally, every terrorist captured should be executed. That way, no future pansy can let them go in exchange for anything.
As I mentioned in an earlier thread, it took the Mossad nearly 20 years to track down and kill most of the terrorists from the Munich massacre.
My question exactly. My guess is the reason would be we don’t have permission from Qatar, but I say go ahead and take the Hamas jerks out. So what if Qatar complains? The worst thing they could do is introduce a UN resolution condemning our actions . . .
As I recall, in the past the family homes of terrorists were destroyed by Israel. If they stopped doing that, it was a mistake.
Those guys ought to be an embarrassment to the Arab world. Thieves, crooks, cowards, hypocrites urging the common Palestinians suck it up and accept poverty and to go get shot at in futile attacks while they live off the compassion of mostly (but not entirely ) Western nations. Al Capone and Pablo Escobar were far more honorable by comparison to those guys. Weird that some refer to Islam as an “honor” culture.
I find it difficult to believe those guys pray to Mecca 5 times a day when there are hookers around, etc.
Super Power? Fox news reports:
Putin can lean on Hamas and get a hostage released. This from a country that has been compared to Mexico with nukes.
A nation can only be a Super Power if it is willing to act like one.
Our politicians seem to have forgotten about speaking softly but carrying a big stick.
Launch it in a way that suggests that it came from Iran.
Let’s learn a few lessons from Abu Ghreb.
Good idea. But maybe less collateral damage if they are whacked on the road in a vehicle. Or on the a golf course. Assume the drones can do that. Say it was a misfire.
This is a question I have been asking myself ever since I heard that Biden is backtracking on his original statements in regard to Hamas’ acts of terrorism. What Hamas did on October 7th was an act or number of individual acts of blatant immoral violence and depravity. No one with an intact sense of morality can justify rape, murder, and infanticide committed against an unsuspecting civilian population. The abduction of 240+ civilians from the survivors of the attack and the holding of those civilian captives in underground caves for more than 50 days. I don’t understand, but I accept as a norm for the useless pile of garbage on the shores of Turtle Bay, the unwillingness to condemn and use all possible force to free those hostages. However, why would the President of the United States of American not use every possible military solution to free those hostages and destroy their captors to insure that such acts never occur again. Are we or are we not the preeminent power in the world today. Are we not a nation that prides itself on our sense of justice, of righteousness. Why is that coward in the White House, the most powerful man in the world unable to make a clear and concise statement about what is happening? Is he so bereft of integrity that he is unable to stand up and be a leader who demonstrates to the people of this nation that there are unnegotiable standards of morality? Has everything become relative? Is that where our great nation has ended up? Is this the ultimate denouement of all of the efforts and risks taken by our founding fathers? If this is what our nation has become, I want nothing more to do with it! Either we clean up the pile of dog poop sitting in the Oval Office by voting him out and replacing him with someone with real integrity or we are seeing the final stages of our decline and fall. Biden is the absolute worst man who has ever held that office. He has surrounded himself with the most dispiccable mediocrities ever to be a part of this government. An education secretary who quotes a former president without understanding his words. A cross dressing imbecile who steals other people’s luggage in airports. A Homeland Security chief who has allowed and invasion of our southern border. This is like a SNL skit which in that context might be funny, but in reality is tragedy. We may well have the one head of government less able to govern effectively than that buffoon to the north of us in Canada.