Israel
Biden blasted for pressuring Netanyahu, not Hamas terrorists following murder of Jewish hostages
Former hostage whose American husband is still being held says 'Israeli government not doing enough'
By Benjamin Weinthal Fox News
Published September 4, 2024 4:00am EDT
Netanyahu vows Hamas to pay heavy price for hostage deaths
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference amid protests after Hamas' killing of six hostages.
Join Fox News for access to this content
JERUSALEM — President Biden’s curt response "no" to the question if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing enough to secure the freedom of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza unleashed a storm of criticism.
Biden issued the terse remark on Monday as he headed into the Situation Room, where he and Vice President Harris convened with a hostage deal negotiating team after the murder of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday.
Netanyahu flatly rejected that he and his coalition are responsible for the murders of the hostages. He said, "We didn’t manage to extricate them. We were very close. It’s terrible," he said. "But it didn’t happen because of that decision."
BIDEN CLAIMS NETANYAHU NOT DOING ENOUGH TO SECURE DEAL WITH TERRORISTS
Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden
The Cabinet decision involves what Netanyahu described as a "strategic imperative" to retain the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) along the Philadelphi Corridor, which is an 8.7-mile strip of land that runs along Egypt and Gaza and has been a hub for arms smuggling for Hamas.
"It happened, first, because they [Hamas] don’t want a deal," the prime minster said, adding about the hostages,"I look for every means … to bring them home."
When asked by Fox News Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Tuesday why Biden was harder on Netanyahu than on the terrorist leader of Hamas, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded that, "The president has been very, very clear about Hamas leaders and what they have done." She continued, "He was asked a question, he answered it directly but Hamas is responsible. They have more American blood on their hands. The president was clear about that in his statement."
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra'anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi. Hamas abducted the 26-year-old sound and light technician from the Nova Music Festival and killed him in captivity. Israeli soldiers recovered his body along with five others on Saturday.
Caroline Glick, a former adviser to Netanyahu and columnist told Fox News Digital, "From the outset of the war, U.S. pressure has been exerted on Israel alone. The war would have been over months ago if the U.S. had permitted Israel to lay siege on Gaza and pressured Egypt to permit Gazans to either shelter in Egypt for the duration of the war or seek shelter in third countries by exiting Gaza through Egypt. Rather than stand with Israel, the U.S. preserved Hamas in power by demanding that Israel keep Gaza fully supplied through humanitarian aid which has been distributed, or ransacked, by Hamas and so preserved Hamas in power."
Glick continued, "The U.S. pressure for a hostage deal is not directed against Hamas, which is holding the hostages, and as we saw over the weekend, executing them in cold blood. It is directed solely against Israel. The Biden-Harris administration's pressure is not geared towards rescuing the hostages. It is geared towards rescuing up to 20% of the hostages in exchange for a full cessation of the war, while Hamas is still in charge of Gaza and capable of reconstituting its terror forces in short order if Israel relinquishes its military control over Gaza's international border with Egypt."
The general strike and mass protest, however, were not a broad-based movement that would force the collapse of the government or strong-arm Netanyahu into, from his perspective, a concessionary deal that abandons the security of the Jewish state in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Netanyahu accepted a cease-fire and hostage deal two weeks ago. The terrorist organization Hamas was the deal-breaker. From the Israeli government’s perspective and American experts on terrorism, there is a belief that the U.S. and other Western powers are not imposing severe pressure on Hamas and its patron, Qatar, to release the hostages.
NETANYAHU MOURNS DEATHS OF 6 HOSTAGES RECOVERED IN GAZA, VOWS TO 'SETTLE ACCOUNTS' WITH HAMAS
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Fox News Digital, "On a day when Israel is mourning, literally weeping, for its murdered hostages, Biden should be saving his criticism for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, not Israel’s democratically elected leader."
Friedman, who served under President Trump, said "Biden and Harris have been wrong and catastrophically weak at every turn in this conflict. They even tried for weeks to keep Israel out of Rafah where the hostages were being hidden. They have no credibility and repeatedly blame Netanyahu for their failures, widening the traumatic rift within Israeli society."
Biden blasted for pressuring Netanyahu, not Hamas terrorists following murder of Jewish hostages
Former hostage whose American husband is still being held says 'Israeli government not doing enough'
By Benjamin Weinthal Fox News
Published September 4, 2024 4:00am EDT
Netanyahu vows Hamas to pay heavy price for hostage deaths
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference amid protests after Hamas' killing of six hostages.
Join Fox News for access to this content
JERUSALEM — President Biden’s curt response "no" to the question if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing enough to secure the freedom of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza unleashed a storm of criticism.
Biden issued the terse remark on Monday as he headed into the Situation Room, where he and Vice President Harris convened with a hostage deal negotiating team after the murder of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday.
Netanyahu flatly rejected that he and his coalition are responsible for the murders of the hostages. He said, "We didn’t manage to extricate them. We were very close. It’s terrible," he said. "But it didn’t happen because of that decision."
BIDEN CLAIMS NETANYAHU NOT DOING ENOUGH TO SECURE DEAL WITH TERRORISTS
Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden
The Cabinet decision involves what Netanyahu described as a "strategic imperative" to retain the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) along the Philadelphi Corridor, which is an 8.7-mile strip of land that runs along Egypt and Gaza and has been a hub for arms smuggling for Hamas.
"It happened, first, because they [Hamas] don’t want a deal," the prime minster said, adding about the hostages,"I look for every means … to bring them home."
When asked by Fox News Senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Tuesday why Biden was harder on Netanyahu than on the terrorist leader of Hamas, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded that, "The president has been very, very clear about Hamas leaders and what they have done." She continued, "He was asked a question, he answered it directly but Hamas is responsible. They have more American blood on their hands. The president was clear about that in his statement."
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Ra'anana to pay their final respects to Almog Sarusi. Hamas abducted the 26-year-old sound and light technician from the Nova Music Festival and killed him in captivity. Israeli soldiers recovered his body along with five others on Saturday.
Caroline Glick, a former adviser to Netanyahu and columnist told Fox News Digital, "From the outset of the war, U.S. pressure has been exerted on Israel alone. The war would have been over months ago if the U.S. had permitted Israel to lay siege on Gaza and pressured Egypt to permit Gazans to either shelter in Egypt for the duration of the war or seek shelter in third countries by exiting Gaza through Egypt. Rather than stand with Israel, the U.S. preserved Hamas in power by demanding that Israel keep Gaza fully supplied through humanitarian aid which has been distributed, or ransacked, by Hamas and so preserved Hamas in power."
Glick continued, "The U.S. pressure for a hostage deal is not directed against Hamas, which is holding the hostages, and as we saw over the weekend, executing them in cold blood. It is directed solely against Israel. The Biden-Harris administration's pressure is not geared towards rescuing the hostages. It is geared towards rescuing up to 20% of the hostages in exchange for a full cessation of the war, while Hamas is still in charge of Gaza and capable of reconstituting its terror forces in short order if Israel relinquishes its military control over Gaza's international border with Egypt."
The general strike and mass protest, however, were not a broad-based movement that would force the collapse of the government or strong-arm Netanyahu into, from his perspective, a concessionary deal that abandons the security of the Jewish state in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Netanyahu accepted a cease-fire and hostage deal two weeks ago. The terrorist organization Hamas was the deal-breaker. From the Israeli government’s perspective and American experts on terrorism, there is a belief that the U.S. and other Western powers are not imposing severe pressure on Hamas and its patron, Qatar, to release the hostages.
NETANYAHU MOURNS DEATHS OF 6 HOSTAGES RECOVERED IN GAZA, VOWS TO 'SETTLE ACCOUNTS' WITH HAMAS
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Fox News Digital, "On a day when Israel is mourning, literally weeping, for its murdered hostages, Biden should be saving his criticism for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, not Israel’s democratically elected leader."
Friedman, who served under President Trump, said "Biden and Harris have been wrong and catastrophically weak at every turn in this conflict. They even tried for weeks to keep Israel out of Rafah where the hostages were being hidden. They have no credibility and repeatedly blame Netanyahu for their failures, widening the traumatic rift within Israeli society."
