How to get Hamas to release the hostages

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief terrorist in Gaza, has no incentive to make a deal for the release of the estimated 129 Israeli hostages.  Thanks to the Biden administration, he believes he has the upper hand in his war with Israel.  After all, the U.S. and its allies are providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as food, water, and fuel.

Sinwar has all he needs to sustain his fight against Israel.  The Iranians provided him with enough ammunition, and cash to fire rockets into Israel, albeit at a reduced rate.  Additionally, Sinwar watches the Israeli TV stations and reads the Hebrew newspapers, and he has concluded that the families of the hostages and the Biden administration are pressing the Netanyahu government hard enough for him to ultimately relent and declare a ceasefire.  Under such circumstances, Hamas and terrorism worldwide will triumph.

A popular title of an Israeli song called (in translation) “When the Heart Is Bleeding” reflects the mood in the Jewish state.  The daily announcements of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) casualties are further demoralizing those already broken by the dreadful massacres of October 7, 2023.  The Israeli war cabinet’s objective to eliminate the military and political presence of Hamas in Gaza is becoming increasingly difficult.  The antisemitism engulfing the Western world and beyond, including the U.S., is also impacting the Israeli psyche.

President Joe Biden is focused on the November 2024 elections and is currently trailing Donald Trump in the polls.  The “progressives” in the U.S. Congress and their soldiers in the streets of America are intimidating Democrat party politicians who show sympathy or support for Israel.  Muslim congressional members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have threatened to deny support for Biden because of his support of Israel, and many “progressives” in Congress have joined them.  Biden, concerned about losing the 2024 election to Trump, is increasingly taking a more “even-handed” approach to the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel’s military pressure on Hamas has not compelled the Hamas terrorist organization to approach a deal to release the hostages.  Sinwar and the other Hamas leaders who use their own people as human shields are less concerned about the lives lost of fellow Palestinians.  Sinwar and his terrorist cohorts are well supplied and protected in deep shelters from Israeli attacks.  The subterranean tunnels built over many years are widespread and will take months for the IDF to deal with.  In the meantime, the Europeans and the Biden administration demand that Israel end the war soon and minimize Palestinian civilian casualties.

If President Biden is serious about the release of the Israeli hostages, there are two essential steps the administration must take.  First, the U.S. must increase its pressure on Qatar, the primary paymaster of the Hamas terrorist organization.  Top Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political chief, and former head of the organization Khaled Meshaal, have been living in luxury in Doha, Qatar’s capital.  According to the New York Post, these top leaders are worth a total of $11 billion.  While Gaza Palestinians languish in poverty, Meshaal and Haniyeh live billionaire lifestyles.

President Biden conferred to the Qatari regime the status of a key U.S. ally.  The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Doha, along with the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East, the Al Udeid Air Base.  Yet the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is ideologically allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the regime supported the jihadi-Islamist groups in Syria and is the major supporter of Hamas.  The U.S. has leverage over the Qataris by virtue of being Qatar’s chief defender from regional hostile forces, including Iran.  Biden’s cozy relations with the Qatari regime should lead to better results from the Qataris.

The second step would be to condition future humanitarian aid pouring into Gaza on the release of the Israeli hostages.  Hamas must allow the Red Cross or other neutral doctors and nurses to visit the Israeli hostages and provide them with humanitarian aid that has, thus far, only been granted to the Palestinians in Gaza.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.