By Gatestone Institute | Created at 2025-03-13 09:01:09 | Updated at 2025-03-14 08:26:04
23 hours ago
Pictured: US Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler speaks at the State Department in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The Trump administration's Gaza policy is completely divided.
On the one hand, President Donald Trump is saying all the right things, on the other hand, his team is going in and saying all the wrong things.
After Trump's common sense approach, Steve Witkoff, the "envoy" responsible for foisting the disastrous Biden ceasefire on us, would water them down and dismiss the president's proposals. Now White House Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler, who appeared to be a credible figure, decided to directly meet up with Hamas and came out with exactly the sort of thing John Kerry or Jimmy Carter would have come away with.
Boehler said that Hamas is not interested in returning to war:
"Israel has done a masterful job of eliminating Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas did orient toward a long-term truce where they would be disarmed, they would not be part of the political policy, and where we would ensure that they are in a place where they can't hurt Israel. Part of that was rebuilding Gaza."
In an interview to be aired tonight with Kan, he added:
"Hamas suggested that they would release all hostages, lay down their weapons, and no longer be part of the politics of Gaza, and that the US and its allies would ensure there was no military infrastructure remaining in Gaza. In exchange, there would be a five to ten-year truce, and the US and other countries would help rebuild Gaza."
He addressed the Israeli concerns over the US opening a direct channel with Hamas:
"The Israelis were kept informed. It's totally fair for Israel to have concerns, but we are not an agent of Israel – we are the United States, and we have specific interests at play."
Boehler outlined a possible framework for a deal: that Hamas lay down its arms in exchange for prisoner releases, leading to a long-term truce.
"I think there's an answer here, and I think the answer is that Hamas lays down their arms," he said.
"We exchange prisoners, and they go into a long-term truce, where they don't fight, they're not part of any political party, and that gives us lots of cooling-off time.
"I spoke with Ron, and I'm sympathetic. He has someone that he doesn't know well, making direct contact with Hamas. Maybe I would see them and say, 'Look, they don't have horns growing out of their head. They're actually guys like us. They're pretty nice guys.'"
Boehler since walked back the "nice guys" comment, but it seems symptomatic of a regular pattern which is
- Our guys go to Qatar and leave brainwashed.
- The obsession with making a deal overshadows common sense about dealing with terrorists.
I'm not going to quibble about his word choices like calling Israeli hostages "prisoners" or calling Hamas terrorists "hostages," because the bigger issue is he's pushing the same nonsense that got us to October 7, 2023.
Hamas is not going to "disarm." A 10-15 year truce is a period of time during which Hamas rearms and prepares for another October 7 attack, as they have told us over and over again they will do. And Hamas, not Israel or the U.S., will decide when the truce actually lapses. Much like Hamas announced the previous two-year ceasefire was over by attacking on Oct 7.
This proposed deal leaves Hamas in Gaza and has the U.S. rebuild Gaza for 10-15 years.
In short, it's the worst deal imaginable for America and for Israel.
And this is the problem when we start dealing with terrorists instead of letting our allies defeat them.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Reprinted by kind permission of the Center's Front Page Magazine.
