The Twisted Logic of Hamas’ Hostage Negotiations

The terror organization continues to set traps and toy with Israel

The recent hostage “negotiations” make no sense, unless the twisted logic is understood something like this…

Hamas has trickle-released hostages.

Why?

What’s the potential benefit to Hamas? They know full well that Israel has amassed 360,000 troops at the border, poised to invade Gaza, vowing to kill each and every member of Hamas.

Answer:

To demonstrate Hamas’ “willingness to negotiate.”

Why?

Clearly for PR benefit, to further demonize Israel in the court of global public opinion, especially after the IDF invades Gaza.

How?

Hamas can claim:

“We were willing to negotiate, and Israel invaded anyway!”

Which is the equivalent of:

“Everything that ensues, including the murder of hostages, is all Israel’s fault…”

And why is that important?

Because Hamas’ goal for launching “Operation Al Aqsa Storm” on October 7th was to compel Israel to mercilessly bomb and then invade Gaza, thereby:

• Dismantling the Saudi/Israeli security deal
• Making the marginalized Palestinians central to the viability of any future Middle East deal
• Triggering an even broader, multifront and maybe multicountry conflict that could existentially threaten Israel
• Embroiling the United States back in the Middle East, further fanning the flames of anti-American hatred and encouraging more radicalism
• Taking attention, funding, and arms away from the Ukraine War
• Destabilizing the entire region, ultimately benefitting Iran, Russia, China, and even North Korea

Q.E.D.

The hostage “negotations” are yet another ploy to further enrage public opinion against Israel, and hopefully help trigger a wider, potentially existential conflict benefitting the enemies of the US, NATO, Israel, and the Sunni Arab world.

Implications

Israel won’t let these “negotiations” interfere with their broader objectives to “destroy Hamas” by invading Gaza.

And as the death toll mounts on both sides, so will the conflict slip into further escalation and bloodshed.

This won’t bode well for the hostages. What is to be gained from negotiating with an invading army whose mission is to kill all of you?