Are you a conservative business person? Then check out the Red Referral Network and partner with Dinesh D’Souza by clicking the banner below: There was a time that they didn’t negotiate with kidnappers or terrorists. But obviously, things have changed, and, as one might expect, hostage taking has increased. Why? Because it works. It results in the release of convicted terrorists in custody and gets hours of media coverage for their cause.

Terrorists understand the West. Founded on Judeo-Christian values, the West puts a premium on each human life. Our respect for the individual is one of our strengths, but it clearly can cost us in facing terrorists. One cannot fault the families of anyone held hostage for fighting for their release and pleading and praying for their safe return. In the same situation, would not most of us do the same? Terrorists know that.

With the slow and steady drip of more hostages being released every day, the ceasefire continues to be extended and Israel remains constrained from their goal of eliminating Hamas from Gaza. With each passing day Israel is forced to face more restrictions in an effort to protect the innocent civilians. They are forced to deal with Hamas, give them supplies, and release dangerous captives back into Gaza.

As Hamas releases captives and the media covers the hostages’ heartwarming return home, Hamas is given the opportunity to present themselves as the “good guys,” releasing women and children to the appreciative eyes of the world. They inflate the numbers of Palestinian women and children already killed in Israel’s response. Hamas is finding that the repeated release will begin to soften the world’s view of their October 7th savagery,

While Israel is being forced to wait and watch the daily trickle of hostages being returned, they know full well that the supplies they’re bringing to Hamas will make their job to eliminate them more difficult. Weapons are being moved, fortifications are strengthened, forces are repositioned, and traps are being put in place to kill Israeli soldiers. Every day they delay their assault, their job is becoming more difficult.

The IDF and Israeli leaders are saying the right things. Getting the hostages returned is a welcome result. They know that having to release them by force would have put far more hostages and soldiers in danger. No doubt, many of the Israeli hostages now free might very well have died in the efforts to free them by force. Good has come, but at what cost to their ultimate aim?

What is rewarded gets replicated. In 2011, the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, also known in Arabic as Wafa al-Ahrar, “Faithful to the Free,” resulted in the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Hamas prisoners held by Israel. It took the release of a thousand terrorists to get one captured soldier. That was a deal Hamas loved. As Israel negotiates now, how many convicted terrorists will be returned to Gaza to release the remaining hostages held captive? Once again, taking hostages is paying off in the number of Hamas terrorists freed.

As the ceasefire is extended and only a few hostages are released per day, the exchange could easily take weeks. Hamas is counting on the international press and wavering Western allies to keep up the pressure on Israel. What they want is a permanent ceasefire, and if Israel caves in and agrees to this, the entire war will have been for nothing. Hamas will remain in power in Gaza, and Israel will be left with a military failure and the assurance that more attacks will continue.

Israel has promised to resume their goal of eliminating Hamas from Gaza once the hostage negotiations have been completed. But the anti-Israel media will be ready to savage Israel for even considering to resume the assault.

But resume they must! Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a founding member of Hamas who went undercover as a spy for Israel, provides a warning the West should take to heart: “The danger is if Israel fails in their war in Gaza, which is a brutal war … it will inspire … savages [who will] blackmail superpowers and bring democracies to their knees. If Israel fails in Gaza, all will be next.”

Thankfully, Israel is used to being hated. They know what it is to go it alone if necessary. Netanyahu has promised to resume the assault and to take out Hamas leaders living in presumed safety abroad. Many of the Hamas fighters released in the hostage exchange will no doubt join the fight against Israel. Hopefully, many of them will die in their futile defense.

Terrorism must not win the day. Israel would be wise to put a time limit on when all hostages must be released. Provide a safe page for innocents until that deadline is reached. Some remaining hostages may die, but what assurance does Israel have that some hostages are not already dead. Israel must finish the job or an emboldened Hamas will be free to repeat their savage attacks. Evil must be defeated. God willing, it will be.

Are you a conservative business person? Then check out the Red Referral Network and partner with Dinesh D’Souza by clicking the banner below:

On my last day following a long sojourn abroad, I met a wonderful woman from North Dallas, had dinner with her, and memorized her email address.

When I arrived home the next day, I emailed her to see if she had had a decent trip back. A couple of minutes later, my email bounced back to me as undeliverable. Realizing my mistake of failing to write down her email address or the spelling of her last name, over several weeks I tried numerous alternative methods at length for finding that information, but with no success.

I had not handled it right and I could not later correct the mistake. You’ve long heard the phrase by the late, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” I would add, will you have the opportunity to correct the damage done or even to try again?

Macro Level Bungles

It’s hard to even imagine the frustration and problems for all of us considering the never-ending missteps we watch every day from our president!

Biden and company have engaged in macro-level failures for nearly three years now. Their repeated failures to take early appropriate steps, domestically and internationally, has had serious ramifications for the nation and the world.

In chain-like fashion, their ineptness, unintentional and intentional, has spun out of control and led to one unpalatable situation after another. Then they spend untold labor hours and multi-billions of dollars, not to mention American lives, seeking to correct what they could not get right in the first place.

The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan caused the loss of American lives and $85 billion dollars worth of military equipment to the Taliban. This ‘gift’ is ultimately finding its way to our enemies throughout the region and, arguably, globally. It also has signaled to the rest of the world, particularly Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, that American military effectiveness is questionable.

As a result of not adequately planning the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as President Trump had already outlined, the Biden Administration has been scrambling ever since. Following our Afghanistan withdrawal Russia’s invasion of Ukraine under a false pretext, and the resulting multi-billions we have spent propping up Ukraine, are major unfortunate results.

Middle East Madness

Another result of our ineptness is the spate of attacks, now several dozen, on U.S. Armed Forces throughout the Middle East following the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel.

China’s forays into the Middle East and its support of Iran further imperil Israel and, by extension, the U.S. In considering the Biden Administration, China is emboldened. They are in partnership with Russia ostensibly for one reason: to hasten our declining power. They have ramped up spying on us via “weather balloons,” university “research centers,” exchange “students,” industrial spying, and, of late, the influx of more than 17,000 Chinese nationals at our southern border – all single men of military age.

Because the Biden Administration intentionally has not secured the southern border it has subjected American citizens to crime, fentanyl addiction, and massive numbers of deaths, as well as bursting federal, state, and municipal budgets in the attempt to house, feed, and safeguard swarming numbers of illegal immigrants.

Biden’s porous border policies have invited terrorists, weakened any notion of U.S. homeland security, heightened child trafficking, accelerated drug cartel activity, and aided gang-related connections throughout our county.

Poor Planning, Execution and Follow Up

Across the board, in examining the policies and programs of the Biden Administration and how poorly they’ve been designed and initiated, it is now apparent that everything they do today represents one attempted, hopeless ‘correction’ after another.

These attempted corrections are long drawn out, invariably with no end in sight. Whether it is on the world stage or domestically, each boondoggle after another leads to protracted, expensive, questionable attempts to resolve what didn’t need to occur in the first place.

It is not an exaggeration: the entire Biden Administration is the picture of futility and incompetence, mixed with corruption and persecution of its political opponents. This is no way to run a country or display to the world how an effective representative republic operates. It is no way to deter our enemies from taking bold steps. It is no way to guide us safely into the future.

Indeed, the entire world is now less safe.

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