No, it’s not!!!
Please explain why…
Nnnno.
Breaking News
NYT
Hamas on Friday released two American hostages — a mother and daughter — who were being held in Gaza. The Israeli military received them at the border and took them to an army base in central Israel to be reunited with family members, according to statements released by Hamas and the Israel government.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., identified the released hostages as Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie Raanan, 17. It said they were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Abu Obeidah, the spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, said Friday in a statement on Telegram that Hamas had released the women for “humanitarian reasons” after mediation by Qatar.
The intervention by Qatar is interesting.
Questions that will no doubt be answered in coming days - Why these hostages, Americans, not the oldest or youngest of the taken.
Perhaps because they were not residents of Isreal only visiting? But then, there are those also among those taken from the festival site.
Don’t you just love hearing all the efforts US goes to rescue the American hostages. Let’s hope they include all the others in their efforts. Mr. Biden said. “I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans held hostage around the world.”
Resounding silence from UK.gov. As usual.
Not sure. What is said and what is done can probably differ in either direction.
At work I was told French people have a relatively high be-kidnapped-and-held-as-hostage rate as compared to nationals of other countries. (There’s a totem pole of “kidnappability”, apparently.)
Apparently in kidnapping-for-money-raising circles the French govt is known to pay ransoms for its citizens. Whereas the UK government’s position is, they never pay. As that would encourage kidnapping and make their citizens more vulnerable to be kidnapped.
Mysteriously, and happily, cases were also quite separately mentioned on a completely different topic where apparently a Swiss or another country’s Embassy may turn out to have assisted in the process of getting someone who might be British back, heaven forbid anyone should think the UK had anything to do with this behind the scenes.
Isreal may be overplaying its hand by aggressively clamping down on the free speech of Palestinians not sequestered within Gaza
This attitude is a fundamental part of the problem. Isreal defending herself against Hamas is understandable but continued persecution of Palestinian Isreal residents must end.
But it’s been going on for years and only gets into the news occasionally and only likely to increase on a larger scale.
Palestinians under attack as settler violence surges in the West Bank Palestinians under attack as Israeli settler violence surges in the West Bank - BBC News
BBC reports from inside destroyed Gaza neighbourhood BBC reports from inside destroyed Gaza neighbourhood - BBC News
3 Likes
Indeed. Israeli soldiers don’t seem to mind shooting Palestinian reporters when the opportunity arises - just over a year ago Al Jazeera had one of their reporter’s shot dead.
2 Likes
Biden is the American president, so naturally his priorities are for the Americans…
This is true. May go some way to explaining how western countries are unable to understand the level of animosity that has festered for over a generation. Indeed, for many in the Arab world and some beyond, the west in its entirety is to blame for sanctioning Isreal’s biased and rough treatment meted out to civilians in Gaza over many years.
Every single human needs to learn from this terrible event. To try and understand how such hatred has grown. Until understanding is achieved there can be no forgiveness or move forward by either side.
Let us all hope that things, even if it is unseen for now, are actively moving towards a swift and peaceful resolution for the good of all.
At last America’s president is literally first foot forward in supporting his nationals. They actively have a ‘no man (person) left behind’ policy that they back up with action, not just rhetoric.
It is not Biden’s motives I am wondering about, but those of Hamas.
I’m not going to engage in the debate about the politics of this, as too painful. I just think about the real people in this, not the politicians an their bubbles. This is a video from 9 years ago, when a tiny hope existed
1 Like
At least not officially…
1 Like
This must be even more horrible for you to watch than the rest of us. 
1 Like
A beautiful in The Guardian Letters -
Compassion must be at the heart of any resolution to Middle East conflict
Nadia El-Nakla’s article resounds with clarity, compassion and love for humanity (My family are trapped in Gaza with only salty water to drink – we need a ceasefire to let aid in and people out, 18 October).
The phrase “We are that close”, used by her Palestinian father when discussing the faiths of Muslims and Jews, struck me. It took me directly to another distinguished Palestinian, Musa Alami, who used a similar phrase in conversation with Desmond Stewart in 1979, which he reported in his book The Palestinians: Victims of Expediency.
Stewart wrote: “When he was young, before the Balfour declaration inflated the ambitions of Zionists in Europe and New York, Arabs and Jews had been genuine friends. ‘We Muslims often had Jewish foster-brothers, and vice-versa. We were that close. My own foster-brother and I stayed on these terms as, side by side, we climbed the ladder of what was essentially a small-scale, provincial society. But the political demands of the Zionist leadership eventually prevented us from doing more than exchanging sad smiles, or perhaps a wink, as we passed at the law courts.’”
I confess to sitting in front of the TV series The Repair Shop and, with those seeking to hold on to something mangled or tattered that remains very dear to them, finding tears welling up. Nadia El-Nakla’s ceasefire call has a similar effect. I like to believe the tools are there, the skills are there – if only the correct repair shop is visited. I thank her for her compassion, steadfastness and honesty.
Allan Cameron
Barnstaple, Devon
3 Likes
This is very likely how it works. A complex jigsaw of ‘incentive’ offered to one state or group who in turn do a ‘favour’ for a third state or group, and so on until the hostage holding party get something they want and release their captives.
All this gives cover and deniability unlike a straight forward direct ransom payment. Payments may be anything of value including money. Factories, mining rights, aircraft etc. Various business interests can metamorphose into invisible hostage payments.
This, from Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2023
During 2013–14, ISIS in Syria captured around 20 Western hostages. All of those hostages’ families received financial demands, and every government except the UK and US paid. The British and American hostages, including aid workers David Haines, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller and journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were tortured and eventually executed as part of a depraved ISIS propaganda effort.
From the perspective of political power, it is at least worth considering if paying the ransom quietly would have been a better tactic than making the hostages less valuable to their kidnappers and leaving them prey to an execution squad.
Refusing to negotiate with terrorists cannot be proven to have discouraged or prevented the taking of US and UK citizens as hostages, or to have facilitated their release.
Payment of ransom, while morally questionable, does often succeed at bringing people home safely.
The payment of ransom by some countries pretty much guarantees the torture and execution of those from countries that won’t pay - kidnappers MUST make people feel a failure to pay will guarantee the horrible demise of the kidnapped.
I was going to post this article on the previous thread, so this thread looks like the place.
Whilst a useful history background which may help context I think a good question is -
Have forumites seen any similar ‘unbiased’ published by other UK newspapers, or American for that matter? (I know some think the Grauniad biased hence quotes).
Because to know and understand the background seems important.
For example, on the idea
Yes, but Gaza’s do not seem to want to be forced out - i.e. another Nakba. After they leave / forced out / killed Isreal won’t allow them back and Egypt won’t allow 2.2M immigration anyway.
where to seems obvious - into the rest of Israel / West Bank - but can’t see Israel reducing apartheid and offering space, let alone Fatah welcoming 2.2M citizens with possible Hamas political sympathies.
There was a good line on C4 news yesterday -
Two weeks ago nobody was talking about Palestinians, today nobody is talking about anything else.
Unfortunately publicity is a reason for war. But ignoring injustice and pretending ignorance is another.
2 Likes
My personal choice of sources are:
-
The New York Times
-
The Guardian
-
BBC
-
The Washington Post
-
Al Jazeera
-
Yomiuri Shimbum
-
Financial Times
-
Politico
-
Belligcat
Some for immediacy and some for analysis and linked commentaries. I then triangulate the results and hope to arrive at a pretty accurate picture. These publications also sometimes lead to other supporting research sources, which I also then read.
I have such a dislike for the press of that poisoned dwarf Rupert Murdoch that I cannot bring myself to read The Times but husband does and provides me with some edited reviews on request.
1 Like