President Joe Biden came under fire from the editorial board of the New York Post for his failure to openly demand that Hamas free the Americans it kidnapped last month following a surprise attack against Israel.
The board stated in an opinion piece that was released on Tuesday that discussions in Qatar had resulted in an offer from Hamas to free some of its prisoners in exchange for Israel pausing its offensive in Gaza for a three-day period. The board added that according to some of the same reports, Biden has put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in private to agree to such terms.
But why hasn’t Biden openly, consistently, and firmly pressed Hamas to release the ten or more US citizens that the terrorists kidnapped along with their other war crimes on October 7? the board questioned.
The op-ed went on, “It is likely that he does not anticipate Hamas complying and does not intend to send in American troops to force the issue.” “However, he could employ additional tactics to exert pressure, like threatening to undo the Obama-era agreements that provided security for Hamas’ top leaders to operate openly in Qatar.”
The board also points out that Biden might openly state that he is against any kind of delay unless and unless Hamas free the innocent citizens that its militants captured a month ago.
The board stated, “He might also severely hurt the people who fund Hamas in Tehran by, for example, lifting the restrictions that had severely hampered its oil earnings prior to his election.
The opinion piece continued, “You’d expect an American president to hold Hamas and Iran accountable for the hostage-taking—rather than pressuring our ally to do the enemy’s will in the hopes the war criminals will suddenly play nice.”
The focus has also shifted to how the Israeli and American security services failed to detect the attack during its planning stages.
Top IDF and Shin Bet officials opted not to place armed personnel on the boundaries of the enclave on the eve of the Hamas attack, despite evidence of anomalous behaviour among Hamas operatives in Gaza, according to Axios.
Axios said, “The events of the previous night demonstrate how most senior officials in the Israeli defence establishment and intelligence community didn’t understand how bad the situation would become, even though the Israeli intelligence failure was much broader and strategic.”
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a friend and ally, came under fire from the former president Donald Trump, who said that Netanyahu was partly to blame for the collapse.
“(Netanyahu) has suffered great harm as a result of this incident. He had not been ready. This week, Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, “Neither he nor Israel was prepared.”