You Can’t Negotiate with Barbarians

As the nightmare with Israel in Gaza continues to unfold, I have almost completely lost patience with the idiocy, naivete, and wishful thinking of those who are involved with the supposed negotiations to release hostages, and to initiate a cease fire. Everyone seems to have an agenda, and very few of them deal with reality and the actual facts.

And meanwhile, people are dying, as the war drags on. Most recently, Hamas killed six hostages:

Their bodies were found with gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of their bodies, the Ynet news site reported. An autopsy found they were murdered in the 48 hours prior to the discovery of their bodies, the report said.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the six were ‘brutally murdered’ by Hamas shortly before troops arrived — possibly only a day or two before they were found.

Does the word “barbarism” not fit these actions? These were innocent civilians who were murdered. Real human beings. Hersh Goldberg-Polin was originally from Oakland, CA. Alexander Lobanov leaves behind his wife, a two-year old child and a five-month-old child; the latter was born during his captivity. Almog Sarusi was at the Nova music festival, and tried to save his girlfriend when she was shot; she died and he was taken hostage.

Do I tell these stories to tug at your heartstrings? Yes. But I also tell them because the hostages can eventually be viewed as one-dimensional photos that become dehumanized over time. After all, Hamas has dehumanized them and treated them as bargaining chips; even then, they were expendable.

But there are other activities taking place that complicate Israel’s war with Gaza. My first gripe is with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. If you read about their goals, they may seem noble. The problem is that they have created a fiction about the actual situation in Gaza. They foolishly believe that the international criminal organizations are going to hold Hamas accountable. Seriously? When has any international community acted to defend Israel? These agencies may even verbalize their intentions, such as calling Sinwar a war criminal. But will they do anything? They don’t have the power to take any kind of action. So, while the HMFF fights for the hostage families, they ignore the facts on the ground, inhibit the Israeli government’s ability to prosecute the war, have led the frightened and angry families of hostages to believe that they can be successful, and ignored the true motivations of Hamas from the start (which was to drive Israelis into the sea). More than all that, they insist on a ceasefire. Let’s look first at the farce of the ceasefire deal:

The US, Qatar and Egypt, who have acted as mediators, this month renewed a push to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The mediators have proposed a three-phase approach: a first phase involving a six-week ceasefire; a second phase that would release all hostages and a withdrawal of all IDF presence from Gaza; and a third reconstruction phase.

However, the current proposal, if agreed upon, essentially allows Israel and Hamas to abandon discussions after the first phase, and Israel has made it clear that a break in the fighting may be just that and it is not ready to agree to a permanent ceasefire.

First of all, Hamas has consistently refused the first part of the deal; they will settle for nothing less than a permanent ceasefire, which means they want to end the war—permanently! Does anyone see any problem with these demands? If there is no first phase of negotiating, why are we negotiating? Is the U.S. hoping a miracle will happen and Hamas will change its mind? Based on what? In a previous post, I explained some of the reasons why negotiations are a waste of time. But more than that conclusion, they have raised the hopes of the hostage families, ignoring the position of Hamas to settle for nothing less than a permanent cease fire or an end to the war. And they blame Netanyahu for Hamas’ reticence.

Is anyone listening?

For the most part, wishful thinking is guiding decisions about the war. The U.S. thinks that as long as they insist that negotiations continue, Hamas will cave in. As Joseph Cox has said, Qatar is not the friend of Israel or the U.S. And Egypt wants to maintain control of the Philadelphi corridor so that they can continue to reap the benefits of Hamas shipping arms through that area.

So, if I haven’t been clear in my message, let me summarize why the negotiations should stop

• Israel should be given the weapons they need to wipe out Hamas, and be allowed to destroy Hamas to assure their own existence.
• None of the negotiating parties are legitimate participants.
• There will be no permanent ceasefire until Hamas is sufficiently destroyed.
• The hostages may or may not survive the ongoing war, although we now know that Hamas is willing to kill them.
• HMMF may decide to speak out for the hostages and their families, but they should stop claiming they will get international action against Hamas.

Those are the facts.

Live with them.