John Bolton: Hostage Agreement and Truce Deal With Hamas is a Detrimental Outcome for Israel
Former national security adviser John Bolton criticized the temporary hostage and cease-fire deal between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group secured on Nov. 21, saying “it’s a very bad deal” for Israel.
“It’s another swap of hostages, innocent victims, for criminals that are in Israeli jails at a ratio of three to one in favor of the Hamas terrorists,” Mr. Bolton said.
The Israeli government announced the truce early Wednesday morning following the Israeli Cabinet’s approval. The deal will see at least 50 of the roughly 240 hostages, exclusively women and children, released over four days from Hamas custody. In return, 150 Palestinian detainees, who are also all women and children, will be released from Israeli prisons.
The Israeli government said that an additional “day of respite” will be added for every 10 hostages released. The deal also stipulates that the four-day pause in fighting will allow for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Mr. Bolton believed that the key reason Israel accepted the deal was pressure from the Biden administration. The former national security adviser said that the White House has been backing away from its early support for Israel, as seen by the truce.
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Besides the unfavorable swap ratio, pausing fighting when an additional 10 hostages are freed is another bad term for Israel. “Why would you ever give your enemy the deciding vote on how long the pause takes?” Mr. Bolton asked.
“I don’t see how this on net benefits Israel strategically. I’m sure the Israeli Defense Forces get some benefit from a pause,” Mr. Bolton said.
“But fundamentally, time is on Hamas’s aside here,” he said. “And the more time you give them, the more time they can move their people back from vulnerable positions, consolidate, and hide the other hostages even more deeply in the tunnel system.”
The Deal
The deal was the result of weeks of extensive negotiations involving the United States, Qatar, Egypt, Hamas, and Israel, according to the White House.
U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for “their leadership” in reaching the deal and pledged that he “will not stop” until all American hostages are released.
Although Israel’s Cabinet backs the cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, “the Israeli government, the IDF, and the security forces will continue the war in order to return all the hostages, to complete the elimination of Hamas, and to ensure that Gaza does not renew any threat to the State of Israel,” Israel said in the statement after the deal was announced.
Hamas took an estimated 236 hostages to Gaza after its deadly cross-border attack on Israelis on Oct. 7, which sparked the war. Nearly a dozen U.S. citizens were thought to be among the hostages.
According to the White House, three Americans are anticipated to be released as part of the deal, including a 3-year-old girl whose parents were killed on Oct. 7
Mr. Netanyahu pledged that the Israeli offensive against Hamas would start as soon as the truce ended. Before announcing the hostage release deal, he summoned his war cabinet to vote on the deal.
Hamas launched surprise attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, killing at least 1,200 Israeli civilians, including 32 Americans. The conflict quickly escalated when Israeli forces retaliated against Hamas as the country declared a state of war. According to Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas, the campaign has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians.
Emel Akan and Caden Pearson contributed to this article.
