It was just one more thing that Biden has gotten wrong during his presidency.
A pro-Israel activist says there is no doubt that the ceasefire is because of the imminent arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.
The deal is to pause the war, not end the war. Phase I allows for the release of 33 hostages. How many are alive remains unclear.
“Again, this ceasefire is almost certainly temporary. It is not a permanent end to the war,” writes Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire. “Phase II, in my opinion, is highly unlikely ever to materialize given how many hostages Hamas retains and given that Hamas will never disarm or agree to exile.”
The deal does not force Israel to alter deployment along the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt.
That likely means “the war will continue until Hamas has no control over Gaza. Trump’s nominees have said as much; so has the Israeli government,” Shapiro said.
Trump had warned that if the hostages were not released by inauguration day, Hamas would face dire consequences.
Gary Bauer is Chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, and has served on the board of Christians United for Israel. He says this is reminiscent of 1981 when hundreds of hostages held by Iran were released just before Ronald Reagan became president.
"I was blessed to work for Ronald Reagan for eight years, and I worked in the Reagan campaign and on that weekend leading up to Inauguration Day. We heard the rumors that our hostages were coming back from Iran after weeks and months of humiliation under Jimmy Carter.”
1981 revisited
And Bauer sees the same thing playing in front of our eyes right now.
"As the weak president that we have is leaving, and a strong president is coming in, the deal that has just been released happened while Joe Biden was still president. But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it happened because President Trump is about ready to take the oath of office, and President Trump was absolutely clear about this repeatedly in recent weeks and months. Release the hostages are all you know what is going to break out in the Middle East when I take the oath of office."
Bauer thinks the terrorists got the message, and that is why he thinks these hostages are coming home.
