Donald Trump: Israel must end Hamas war and bring home hostages

 

Donald Trump: Israel must end Hamas war and bring home hostages

Donald Trump has demanded that Israel bring an end to its war with Hamas and that the remaining hostages being held in Gaza are released.

The former president and Republican nominee for the White House is to meet Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in Florida on Friday.

Speaking to Fox News before the meeting, Trump said that the Gaza war should end fast “because they are getting decimated with this publicity, and you know Israel is not very good at public relations”.

Trump has insisted that the Hamas raid on Israel that killed 1,200 people, and the subsequent war, would not have happened had he been in the White House.

This year, he blamed Netanyahu for allowing the terrorist attacks to take place, saying that intelligence warnings were well known in advance.

Before Netanyahu travels to Florida he will meet President Biden in the Oval Office and have a private meeting with Kamala Harris, the vice-president and likely Democratic Party presidential candidate. — The Times

Our Take: Allow me to begin by addressing Trump's passing statement in this interview where he proposed one year in jail for burning the American flag.

In another take below, on AOC and Elon, I claim that free speech is the hill on which I will plant my flag, and prepare to perish. I mean that, and for that reason, I will respectfully disagree with President Trump's call to jail for 12 months anybody who burns the American flag, ostensibly because it is disrespectful of our country.

There are existing laws for theft, arson, and destruction of property, and all of those combined could potentially result in jail time. But nobody should ever be punished by our government for [peacefully] expressing their contempt for it-- even when I find their particularly statement despicable. Even when they are my political opponent. (Because these flags were apparently government property, if you want to increase the penalties for desecrating such relics, that may be a suitable compromise. But those details need to be hashed out in a public negotiation.)

That is what it means to embody First Principles. You must be consistent in their application.

As for the rest of President Trump's comments, it appears that he is completing his pubic "turn" against Bibi Netanyahu. The line about "public relations" was interesting, as wartime propaganda is certainly a form of PR. But I think what Trump really meant was a reference to the growing sentiment of antisemitism that is manifesting as the world sours on Israel's warmongering.

This is why it is a problem for the government of Israel—a secular institution of man—to conflate itself with a major world religion. Because now the practitioners of that religion around the world will suffer the contempt of those who despise Israel's warmonger—even if those practitioners despise Israel and its warmongering, themselves.

And then there's this line, about the Hostages and Missing Families Forum:

“It has now become apparent that the information provided to the hostages’ families did not accurately reflect the situation’s reality,” the group said. “This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure.”

Didn't I say yesterday that Netanyahu will do whatever he can to subvert a ceasefire deal? It is important for him to keep those hostages in the possession of Hamas, because as soon as they are all returned home, Netanyahu will lose the moral imperative for war that he has established, and if peace breaks out, his government will be dissolved by the radicals in his cabinet who thirst for the blood of their enemies.

I think Trump knows this, which is why he is telegraphing doubt that the hostages can even be saved. Netanyahu is using those hostages to propel Israel deeper into the throes of bloodlust. But that line about "serious moral failure" is particularly interesting, when you consider the possibility that Netanyahu—or his cabinet members—could have helped facilitate the October 7th attack. — GhostofBasedPatrickHenry