Israel should not accept any ceasefire or delay of an invasion of Rafah, except in exchange for ALL hostages. Drawing out the conflict for months or years is not in Israel's interest, and the likelihood that more hostages will be harmed or killed during ongoing negotiations should be untenable to us. Am I not being pragmatic here? What am I missing? This seems obvious to me that this middle of the road strategy has not been working for decades and we need to change course.
As a US citizen I can tell you we do not negotiate for hostages. This is policy. We will keep a corridor of communication open and try to determine the condition of hostages and other practical matters via the State department. We don’t negotiate with terrorists because of moral and pragmatic reasons. We may apply political pressure, economic pressure, back-door third party mediation (a form of negotiation) but more often than not only in rare circumstances like when the Iranians held hundreds of hostages for years. As you have sadly found out, negotiations are largely futile and have outsized repercussions. We expect, as citizens (at least older ones, not sure about the younger generations) to try to escape (our duty) at anytime possible, endure without participation in propaganda, and if someone (third party, military special forces, private individuals) comes to rescue us great, but we don’t expect any “official” rescue. We know what happens to a country like ours and yours if we try to negotiate. Therefore it isn’t that we abandon people, it’s just that we have a collective responsibility to the larger population of citizens in our country and to our country not to place everyone in that position. Pragmatic,
DP, the US in my opinion has engaged in negotiations with terrorists. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl I believe his name was in 2014 was traded for 5 taliban soldiers. Maybe you can argue he was a prisoner of war and not a hostage… more recently Brittany Greiner in Russia was traded for a high profile Russian arms dealer, even though she had only committed a very minor drug crime. We can dance around terminology, but this seems like negotiating with terrorists to me. I agree with you, the policy in America and Israel should be that we don’t. The consequences for taking American or Israeli hostages should be swift and severe to discourage incentivising hostage taking.
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#BREAKING Four Israeli hostages have been rescued in a daring operation in central Gaza earlier today. The rescued hostages are:
🎗️ Noa Argamani
🎗️ Almog Meir Jan
🎗️ Andrey Kozlov
🎗️ Shlomi Ziv
All four have been taken to hospital in Israel.
Keeping going IDF, you’re better at extracting them then negotiating.
Israel should not accept any ceasefire or delay of an invasion of Rafah, except in exchange for ALL hostages. Drawing out the conflict for months or years is not in Israel's interest, and the likelihood that more hostages will be harmed or killed during ongoing negotiations should be untenable to us. Am I not being pragmatic here? What am I missing? This seems obvious to me that this middle of the road strategy has not been working for decades and we need to change course.
Because we're all alone in a sea of assholes
It's more like an ocean, but we not alone :)
As a US citizen I can tell you we do not negotiate for hostages. This is policy. We will keep a corridor of communication open and try to determine the condition of hostages and other practical matters via the State department. We don’t negotiate with terrorists because of moral and pragmatic reasons. We may apply political pressure, economic pressure, back-door third party mediation (a form of negotiation) but more often than not only in rare circumstances like when the Iranians held hundreds of hostages for years. As you have sadly found out, negotiations are largely futile and have outsized repercussions. We expect, as citizens (at least older ones, not sure about the younger generations) to try to escape (our duty) at anytime possible, endure without participation in propaganda, and if someone (third party, military special forces, private individuals) comes to rescue us great, but we don’t expect any “official” rescue. We know what happens to a country like ours and yours if we try to negotiate. Therefore it isn’t that we abandon people, it’s just that we have a collective responsibility to the larger population of citizens in our country and to our country not to place everyone in that position. Pragmatic,
Sadly.
DP, the US in my opinion has engaged in negotiations with terrorists. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl I believe his name was in 2014 was traded for 5 taliban soldiers. Maybe you can argue he was a prisoner of war and not a hostage… more recently Brittany Greiner in Russia was traded for a high profile Russian arms dealer, even though she had only committed a very minor drug crime. We can dance around terminology, but this seems like negotiating with terrorists to me. I agree with you, the policy in America and Israel should be that we don’t. The consequences for taking American or Israeli hostages should be swift and severe to discourage incentivising hostage taking.
Maccabee Nation continues to grow! If you're enjoying reading these articles, please participate in the comments and help grow the tribe by sharing a link with a few friends or family members who may be interested. Thank you to everyone to subscribed, especially those who paid for a subscription so we can reach more people.
If anyone knows a good graphic designer, we are searching for someone who can make a custom logo (words and symbol) for Maccabee Nation. Please shoot me a message if you know someone :)