Threats of the Caliphate
Less than a week ago, we wrote a story about Hamas threatening to release propaganda videos of hostages “last messages,” hostages who were then brutally murdered inside Gaza by the terrorist organization. They have since done so.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents families of the hostages, accused Hamas of conducting “psychological terror” through the “calculated releases of distressing footage.”
In the fourth such video, which you can see for yourself below, Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin is forced to beg the United States government to stop the war in Gaza.
“Since I arrived in Gaza, I’ve survived with almost no medical care, little food and little water. I can’t remember the last time I saw the sun or took a breath of fresh air,” Goldberg-Polin said.
“And worst of all is my own country, Israel, has been trying to bomb me nonstop so they don’t have to take responsibility and make a deal for their mistake and for leaving me behind.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival in Re’im by Hamas on October 7.
He then gives a final message to his loved ones, after which dramatic music frames a text overlay from Hamas reading: “Exchange deal.. Freedom & life… Military Pressure.. Death & Failure. Time is running out…”
His parents have authorized the wide release of this video, saying that it “must serve as an immediate wake-up call to the world to take action.”
The Goldberg-Polin family released this statement following the Hamas release of the propaganda video they forced Hersh to film prior to his brutal murder:
"We are in the midst of the seven seven-day Jewish mourning period after burying our son Hersh (of blessed memory) on Monday. Earlier tonight, Hamas released a new video of him, taken while he was being held hostage in the tunnels underneath Gaza.
This must serve as an immediate wake-up call to the world to take action today to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages before it is too late. No other family should go through what our family (and the families of the other recently executed hostages) have endured."
While we grieve with the Goldberg-Polin family, and believe that they are entitled to their beliefs, they are advocating for a deal to secure the release of hostages. Their son’s execution should highlight what a mistake this is. After the October 7 pogrom in which civilians were raped and murdered across Israel, 105 hostages were released in November of 2023 based on such a deal; their son was not among them.
Making deals with terrorists is like making deals with a serial killer in which they not only remain free to kill again but have been encouraged to do so based on the success of their strategy. No one in their right mind would suggest making a deal in which a Ted Bundy or Israel Keyes released a victim in exchange for their own freedom.
The United States Secretary of Defense was recently lauded after overriding a plea deal that would have spared the 9/11 mastermind and two of his accomplices the possibility of a death sentence just over a month before the 23rd anniversary of the attacks.
Hamas is no different from Bundy, Keyes, and they are especially no different from Al Qaeda. There are no political considerations in the indiscriminate murder of civilians. Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. Killing civilians is a war crime. Taking civilians hostage is a war crime. Killing hostages is a war crime. It is murder.
History is full of warnings where these types of negotiations prolong counterinsurgency operations. Israel negotiated with the Palestine Liberation Organization during the secretive Oslo accords inadvertently ceding legitimacy to terrorists and now find themselves over twenty-five years later failing to achieve security.
Colombia negotiated with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for decades, allowing their people to suffer from subversive tactics which continue to fester. And for almost twenty years, Sri Lanka conducted a series of failed negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which ended only after the state changed tactics and applied overwhelming force to the terrorists.
—Stephen T Messenger, Director of First Year Studies, The United States Army War College
The Biden administration just sent Israel 20 billion USD in military aid. I think this video and any subsequent videos are to pressure Netanyahu with mass protests and disruptions in Israel. The audacity to murder in cold blood six people, and think that Hamas has leverage over Israel. 20 billion dollars in military aid. Now that's leverage.