U.S. and European governments have joined to put pressure on Israel.
Some are wondering why Israel hasn’t begun the ground assault on Hamas yet. The answer is in Washington D.C.
After the Hamas atrocities, Israel went on a full war footing. 300,000 Israelis have been evacuated from front line areas and the IDF mobilized 300,000 troops. Those are people who are not with their families or working, some flew in from abroad. This makes Israel one of the most mobilized nations in the world. But it can’t keep that up forever.
But instead of going in, everyone is waiting because D.C. and the EU want to hold off an assault on Hamas.
U.S. and European governments have joined to put pressure on Israel to hold off on its ground invasion of Gaza to allow more time to win the release of hostages held by Hamas, U.S. and foreign officials said.
Several countries have been trying to leverage their contacts with Hamas to press the militant group to release the hostages taken during their onslaught on Israel earlier this month. One U.S. official had said that Qatar’s government had been very helpful on the matter, but noted the difficulties of reaching an agreement given Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the spiraling humanitarian crisis there.
Qatar is a state sponsor of Hamas. It’s harboring Hamas leaders. Before the Hamas attack on Israel, Qatar very helpfully negotiated a truce.
And now that the U.S. and the EU have made it clear that they can stop Israel from taking out Hamas as leverage for the hostages, Hamas has no reason to release the hostages.
Those hostages are the only reason IDF soldiers aren’t in Gaza City right now.
Rather than securing their release, they’ve made them more valuable as hostages.
What did Hamas buy with the release of two female American hostages? The conviction by D.C. diplomats that they can get more released if they just spend more time negotiating with Hamas.
The United States is pressing Israel to hold off on a ground invasion of Gaza to allow for more time for hostage negotiations, according to a CNN report published Sunday.
“The [administration] pressed Israeli leadership to delay because of progress on the hostage front,” a person familiar with the U.S.-Israel talks told the cable network, one of two sources it cited in its report.
Asked on Meet the Press on Sunday about the U.S. delaying a possible ground incursion by Israel into Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken sidestepped the question, but said they are not “second guessing” their ally.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden responded to a question about delaying a potential ground incursion by telling reporters: “I’m talking to the Israelis.”
It’s in Hamas’ interests to appear reasonable, but to hang on to enough hostages to slow any Israeli action.
And Hamas is doing just that with the able assistance of its useful idiots in D.C. and Europe.
“Hamas does not appear to have gotten anything concrete out of the Friday release of Americans Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan,” CNN claims.
Hamas has gotten Israel to delay a ground assault. How much more concrete can you get?
somehistory says
Hold off while the convoys bring in lots of supplies for hamas, and to give the hamas leaders time to flee to egypt or jordan…
As the Israelis are saying the morale and the momentum fall.
Westman says
A very disappointing interview with Jeffrey Sachs on The Duran (YouTube), yesterday. He obviously does not know Islamic doctrine and views this conflict from a secular point of view, as do most of those criticizing Israel. You would think someone that educated and experienced in foreign affairs would have dived into Islamic doctrine and searched for why Islam will never accept a permanent, if any, two-state solution in Israel. None on that program seemed to understand that the goal of Hamas is to kill all the Israelis and never accept their presence.
I was once in that secular view group before learning Islamic doctrine. The secular world makes a huge mistake in thinking, because they don’t take any religion seriously, then Muslims must think about things in the same way – very fatally, wrong.
James Lincoln says
Westman says,
“I was once in that secular view group before learning Islamic doctrine.”
Most people did at one point.
I have had negative view of islam since the 1979-81 hostage crisis, but what really woke me up was the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the USS Cole in 2000.
Alena says
True. Same here. My eyes got wide open after reading Islamic scriptures. The trauma was unbearable, but okay now.
tgusa says
Democrats dont want Israel to attack their allies in Gaza.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, I saw Caroline Glick reporting that over the weekend: the reason that the Israelis haven’t done anything is the US holding them back. We are officially a terrorist supporting state, and if there were a hypothetical superpower other than us w/ a higher moral standing, we’d deserve to be bombed by them and Democrat targets hit incessantly in the same manner that Israel hits Hamas
Mike says
IF Israel does not do ground operation this week, I declare that Israel and the West are doomed. This is a turning point in history like the Battle of Tours in 732 AD when was the beginning of the end of Muslim Empire, and the defeat on Mongols against Mamluks in Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 AD and the beginning of the end of the Mongol empire.
Support says
Do not be totally disappointed. There is an underground war going on. It is in the tunnels where Hamas is sheltering. Israeli commandos and others are busy with this. The ground assault is a clean-up operation. As Hamas is being flushed out from these tunnels air and artillery are used to destroy the terrorists as much as possible and keep the pressure on. When they come out to flee or send back a counter-barrage with missiles they expose themselves. This will continue for some days until their will or capabilities are severely reduced. The hostage negotiations are useful in some ways for both sides both militarily and diplomatically whether it is intended so by the Washington and Eu interference or not..
marc says
I like this, who knows outside of those on the ground, there are no rules to say Israel or the US need to be sharing what they are up to, in fact it makes sense to redirect attention.
OLD GUY says
You can’t fight an enemy with one hand tied behind your back and sending them information as to what your plans are.