Hamas releases first group of hostages

For the past seven weeks, Israel has been negotiating with Hamas for the release of hostages. But their negotiations resembled a hostage standoff in America between trigger-happy policemen and a barricaded gunman. After all, Israel has been bombing Hamas relentlessly. And Hamas has been holding onto its hostages for dear life. 

The United States, Qatar, and Egypt have been brokering these negotiations. Interestingly enough, they’ve been acting like the FBI, SWAT, and hostage negotiators in a hostage standoff. However, negotiations in this case reek of 18th-century bartering over the sale of enslaved Black people.

The peace brokers finally prevailed upon Israel and Hamas to agree to a deal. It stipulates that Hamas will release 50 hostages over four days. During this period, Israel will observe a ceasefire and release 150 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. After all, Hamas would still have 190 bargaining chips. And it’s hoping to use them to secure an indefinite ceasefire and the release of thousands more prisoners.

Even so, today’s first group included 13 Israelis (all women and children). But, in a Hitchcockian twist, it also had 10 Thais and one Filipino. Who knew they were even among the hostages? Everyone thought Hamas terrorists took only Israelis as bargaining chips when they slaughtered 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7. 

Media coverage freed hostages

Coverage of the release of this first group of hostages seemed ripped straight from a political thriller – complete with wild speculation to heighten the suspense. Media outlets provided all-points-coverage of their journey from Khan Younis to safety in Israel. As I watched, consternation and skepticism tempered my sense of relief. 

Foremost, the coverage seemed unhinged from the dire reality of the ongoing hostage crisis. It even featured an image the Israeli government published of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and his cabinet watching this release play out on TV.

No doubt intentionally, that mirrored the famous image the US government published of President Barack Obama and his cabinet watching US Special Forces attack Osama bin Laden’s compound. 

But you’d never know similar wars are raging in Ukraine, Sudan, and Ethiopia. And they feature even more genocidal war crimes. Indeed, media focus on the Israeli hostages is such that you’d never know Israel released Palestinian hostages (whom it calls prisoners) too.

Meanwhile, nobody seems to care that allowing Hamas to command so much media coverage is providing an incentive for other terrorist groups to capture hostages on a similar scale.

This is even more perverse than the incentive blanket media coverage of mass shootings in America provides for copy-cats. Yet, despite this complicity, the media keeps posing disingenuous questions about why mass shootings keep happening.

But the media must stop covering this saga as if it’s the only thing happening in the world. Hell, this tail-wagging-the-dog game of hostage chicken between Hamas and Israel even has no less a person than Biden providing color commentary through bated breath.

It’s bad enough that the media are willfully playing Hamas’s useful idiots. It’s inexcusable that the friggin’ president of the United States is too. Thank God for football!

Hypocrisy abounds on both sides of this deal

The media are covering this deal as a triumph. But that’s primarily because diplomats are backslapping themselves for brokering it.

I am reminded of the diplomats who brokered the deal last year between Russia and Ukraine to resume Ukrainian grain exports. They were diplomatic and sensible enough not to celebrate as if they had just brokered an end to that war itself. We now know that even that deal has since fallen apart.

In this case, the triumph diplomats are celebrating is pyrrhic at best. So much can still go wrong. Not to mention the unseemliness of the family and friends of those released dancing in the streets as if the hostages left behind no longer matter.

That said, Israel has already bombed Gaza to smithereens. Significantly, on November 10, Palestinian health officials announced they could no longer count the dead under so much rubble. The death toll at that point was 13,300 – mostly women and children.

Then, on November 11, Saudi Arabia hosted a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders. Their communique condemned Israel for committing war crimes, rejecting its claim of self-defense. It also called for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and a halt to all arms deliveries to Israel. 

And just this week, African leaders joined the condemnation, echoing the points in that Arab and Muslim communique.  

But these leaders would have had more credibility and influence if they had reserved a little of their condemnation for Hamas. At the very least, they should have coupled demands for Israel to implement a ceasefire with demands for Hamas to release all hostages. Not to mention that none of these Arab, Muslim, and African leaders have even bothered to criticize Russia. 

By the same token, though, none of the Western leaders who have spent nearly two years condemning Russia are condemning Israel in a similar fashion. They’re excusing Israel’s war crimes as collateral damage under legitimate self-defense.  

Unlike their Arab, Muslim, and African counterparts, Western leaders are at least urging adherence to the laws of war. And it matters that Russia invaded Ukraine, whereas Hamas attacked Israel. 

Of human shields and bargaining chips

The defining feature of this war is the value both sides place on human life. Simply put, Israel seeks to protect and preserve every Israeli life. Hamas seeks to exploit and martyr every Palestinian life.

That asymmetry is enabling Hamas to play the tail wagging the dog. Its modus operandi, tried and tested with Gilad Shalit, is a masterclass in psychological warfare. They dangle hope while prolonging agony, a tactic that amplifies Israeli emotional despair and diminishes Israeli war resolve.

Meanwhile, Israel claims it has “destroyed 130 tunnels” over the past seven weeks. Yet it has found only two dead hostages. That indicates the extent to which Hamas is going to protect and preserve its hostages to use as both human shields and bargaining chips. 

What benefit freedom? Cruel fate of freed Palestinians

This might not be such a good deal for the Palestinian prisoners. Sure, prison in Israel is bad, but they were receiving regular meals and medical attention. 

In contrast, life in Gaza is a living hell. The Israeli bombardment has displaced millions of Gazans, forcing them to scavenge for food and water and live under the constant threat of bombing.

Indeed, it speaks volumes that Israeli forces arrested nearly 100 Palestinians just this week. Among them was Doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and many other doctors.

Israel accuses them of collaboration with Hamas terrorists. And it provided credible evidence that these doctors knew Hamas was using tunnels underneath their hospital as an operational hub for terrorist activities. Of course, it might be that Israel is just replacing the 150 Palestinian prisoners they’re exchanging for 50 Israeli hostages. 

Whatever the case, the tragic drama playing out in Gaza is far from over.