Yitzhak ben Moshe, Editor/Reporter, New Mexico  

The writer’s opinion appears in this article and is indicated as such by being written in italics. 

The remaining hostages will be freed by special forces mission and intelligence gathering. Winning the trust of Palestinian civilians by addressing the humanitarian crisis caused by Hamas is the fastest way to do that. If they cannot trust us and cannot live with us in peace, then they can rest in peace.

President Biden said Tuesday that Israel has agreed to pause the war against Hamas during the month of Ramadan. The same deal includes hostages for detained terrorists exchange that is a 1:10 ratio in favor of Hamas.

These comments come on the eve of the Michigan primary, where President Biden is facing pressure from the state’s Arab American population over his support for Israel’s war against Hamas. 

The ceasefire and hostage deal that the President says he feels optimistic about includes the following:

1. Seven female hostages for twenty-one terrorists (Hamas keeps refusing to release them);

2. Five female soldiers held hostage for ninety terrorists, including fifteen of which murdered Israelis;

3. Fifteen male hostages over 50 years of age for ninety terrorists;

4. Thirteen injured male hostages for 156 terrorists;

5. An additional forty terrorists who were previously released after the Gilad Shalit deal.

In total, forty hostages for four hundred terrorists. 

The Associated Press reported, “Talks to pause the fighting have gained momentum recently and were underway Tuesday. Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been working to broker a cease-fire that would see Hamas free some of the dozens of hostages it holds in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a six-week halt in fighting and an increase in aid deliveries to Gaza.”

Any cease-fire deal should see all the hostages released with no swap of terrorists. 

“Ramadan’s coming up, and there has been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said in an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” that was recorded Monday.

“Israel wants a deal now, but the Hamas continues to push excessive demands,” said an Israeli official on the condition of anonymity. “This is because we [Israel] is demanding female soldiers to be part of this first group of hostages to be released.”

Hamas is refusing to release any male soldiers.

Hamas official Ahmad Abdel-Hadi indicated that optimism about a deal was premature.

“The resistance is not interested in giving up any of its demands, and what is proposed does not meet what it had requested,” he told the Pan-Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen.

Hamas has previously demanded that Israel end the war as part of any deal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “delusional.”

It must be noted that both Israel and Hamas are distancing themselves from the statements made by President Biden.

“Why is this man [President Biden] involving himself in what happens here,” said Avihai Benowitz, a freelance photographer the Jerusalem Press uses in Israel. “This is the problem for us here and Jews around this world. Not a government on the other side of the globe.”

Avihai spoke, on our behalf, to one hundred people on the streets of Jerusalem. The question asked was: Should there be a ceasefire that includes the release of some hostages or continued military activity until all hostages are repatriated? 

The result was ninety-three out of one hundred said the IDF and the government should continue activity in Gaza until all hostages are returned. 

Talia, who was in Israel to help an elderly family member, was one of the few who felt that Israel must pull out of Gaza.

“I will not sully the Holocaust by calling this disaster in Gaza a genocide,” said Talia, “but I will ask just what one Israeli life is worth?”

How much is one Israeli life worth? How far would you go if one of your family members was murdered when all they wanted to do was dance? Or if your child was murdered for the crime of sleeping while Jewish? What would you do if your Bubbee and Zaydee were separated from each other, dragged into Gaza, and you didn’t know if they were dead or alive? What would you do? What cost would you count?

I would go to the end of the world to rescue a member of my family, a friend, a fellow Jew. We must pursue this war of rescue and retribution until the end. 

Hamas terrorists love Palestinian and Jewish civilian casualties because they help their political goals. They have no reason to release the hostages.

It’s not realistic to believe that Hamas will find their humanity.

The remaining hostages will be freed by special forces mission and intelligence gathering. Winning the trust of Palestinian civilians by addressing the humanitarian crisis caused by Hamas is the fastest way to do that. If they cannot trust us and cannot live with us in peace, then they can rest in peace.

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