Biden and Harris have done so little to free the hostages

It’s Biden and Harris who aren’t doing enough to free the hostages

by Alan M. Dershowitz

Why should Hamas accept a ceasefire when its refusal is blamed on Israel by the President of the United States? Moreover, when Biden blames Israel, he encourages other allies, such as Britain, Canada, France and Germany, to do the same.

Biden blamed Netanyahu alone, without even mentioning Hamas. And this, after Hamas terrorists murdered six hostages, including an American.

While Biden said Hamas killers would pay a price for killing the hostages, he stopped short of saying that Iran – which controls Hamas – would pay any price, including increased sanctions, or worse, unless the hostages, including the Americans, were released, unharmed, immediately.

[Biden et Harris] should warn Iran that if Hamas harms American hostages, we will consider this an attack on the United States that justifies a military response against Iranian military targets.

Instead, Biden is demanding that Israel compromise its security by allowing Hamas to return to its terror tunnels under the critical Philadelphia corridor.

Iran’s proxies are its human shields. If Iran itself is not punished for the terrorism of its proxies, the mullahs will have no reason to stop, and we, the Middle East, and South America will all be less safe – especially after Iran reveals its nuclear bombs.

Biden should be putting maximum pressure on the criminals – Hamas and Iran – who continue to endanger our citizens and those of our ally. Instead, he is pressuring and blaming the victim, Israel, which has no control over the perpetrators of these crimes.

When the Iranians took American diplomats hostage in 1979 and then ordered their proxies to kill hundreds of U.S. Marines in Lebanon in 1983, they effectively declared war on our nation. Today, their proxies have kidnapped and murdered even more Americans. Our responses to these acts of belligerence have been woefully inadequate. Instead, the Obama administration enriched the Iranian mullahs in exchange for a controversial nuclear deal that would have allowed Iran to have as many nuclear weapons as it wanted after a dozen years…

The message sent by this administration’s weakness and unwillingness is being heard loud and clear not only by Iran but by our other enemies as well.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and the author of several essays.

JForum.fr with www.gatestoneinstitute.org/

Pictured: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a U.S.-Israeli citizen who was assassinated by Hamas after being held hostage in Gaza for nearly 10 months, appears with his left hand amputated in a Hamas propaganda video released on April 24, 2024.