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Source: https://www.commentary.org/john-podhoretz/heroism-and-the-biden-brainless-trust/
Will Allowing Hamas to Survive Lead to Israeli-Saudi Normalization?
(Commentary) John Podhoretz - This weekend, Israel got some of its mojo back in the staggering rescue of the four hostages in broad daylight from the Nuseirat refugee camp - which is technically under UN control - the world's "peacekeepers." The Biden administration is still calling for negotiations leading to a ceasefire after, by my count, the seventh rejection of the same by Hamas since Netanyahu's secret offer a couple of weeks ago. They are banging on a door that will not open. Supposedly, the carrot the administration is dangling is a tripartite security deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel. But the U.S. seems not to understand the very thing that led the Saudis to view Israel as a potential ally more than a decade ago: The idea that Israel means business and does what it must to survive and built itself a tech sector the Saudis want to learn from. Allowing Hamas to survive, which is implicitly part of the big American deal, will not lead to normalization. The Saudis do not want an Iranian vassal state in Palestine. Their entire foreign-policy purpose is to counter Iran.