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Why Hamas Is Refusing a Hostage Deal
(Wall Street Journal) Amit Segal - In the spring, President Biden turned a cold shoulder to Israel as support for destroying Hamas morphed into a call to end the war and a warning against entering Rafah. Strategic weapons shipments were delayed in American ports. The International Court of Justice is seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and defense minister, effectively equating them with Hamas leaders. No wonder Hamas refused any deal offered, however generous. If the U.S. president seeks to end the war and the world will soon force the Israel Defense Forces to stop, why give up Israeli hostages? When Vice President Kamala Harris became the de facto Democratic nominee, she gave Hamas an important gift. After meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, she said the next day, "We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the [Palestinians'] suffering. And I will not be silent." Ms. Harris is apparently unaware that food prices in Gaza are significantly lower than in Israel. In any other war in the past century, has one side regularly supplied food and goods to the enemy's civilians - and still been attacked by the White House? By adopting the anti-Israel narrative, Ms. Harris is giving Hamas's leader, Yahya Sinwar, every reason in the world to refuse a hostage deal. Why give Israel the hostages without ending the war if there is a possibility the 47th president will force Israel to end it anyway? Campus protesters "are showing exactly what the human emotion should be as a response to Gaza," she said recently. She claims that a war between a pro-Iranian murder organization and a democratic state "is not a binary issue." The U.S. administration is taking a similar stance on the Lebanese front. The Iranian proxy Hizbullah has been firing at Israel for months. There is no "siege" and no "occupation," yet the Biden administration is mediating between Hizbullah and Israel like a real-estate broker, instead of sending Iran an unequivocal, threatening message to halt the rocket fire. The writer is chief political commentator on Israel's Channel 12 News.