‘We didn’t’ negotiate with Japan’ – Republican senator blasts hostage deal with Hamas, blames Joe Biden’s pressure on Israel during Gaza war for failure to secure hostages’ release early on.
By World Israel News Staff
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas condemned the hostage deal and ceasefire reached between Israel and the Hamas terror organization in brokered talks in Doha, Qatar last week, and castigated the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza war.
Speaking with Fox News‘ Mark Levin on Saturday, Cotton said the deal with Hamas created a dangerous precedent of negotiating with terrorist organizations, saying the U.S. should have backed Israel’s position throughout the war seeking the unconditional defeat of Hamas and return of the hostages.
“We shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists. We shouldn’t ask Israel or any other country to negotiate with terrorists. You know we didn’t negotiate with Japan after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We said unconditional surrender and release the 40,000 Americans you hold, and that’s what they did,” Cotton said.
Cotton, a pro-Israel stalwart who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Republican Conference, blamed President Joe Biden for the failure to secure the release of the remaining hostages prior to last week’s deal, citing the administration’s pressure on Israel and restrictions on arms transfers during the Gaza war.
“We wouldn’t be in this position here in January of 2025, if that’s the position Joe Biden had taken in October of 2023. If we had simply backed Israel to the hilt, from the beginning of this war, providing Israel the weapons that it needed, when it needed them, and in the quantities that it needed them, and certainly not putting diplomatic and political pressure on Israel to cut bad deals for the last 15 months, and in all of these exit speeches and exit interviews.”
“We should have simply backed Israel from the beginning of the war, provided it with the weapons it needed when it needed them, and not exerted political and diplomatic pressure on Israel to sign bad deals.”
Cotton cited Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who recently acknowledged that Hamas had responded to foreign pressure on Israel by toughening its position in talks or withdrawing from the negotiations altogether.
“Blinken admitted that every time international pressure was exerted on Israel, it caused Hamas to distance itself from the negotiations or raise more baseless demands.”
“The reason we are in a situation where there are still about 100 hostages left in Gaza is that Joe Biden was a weak and failed president who did not support Israel.”
“Tony Blinken has admitted that every time U.S. or international pressure was brought to bear on Israel, it caused Hamas to walk away from the table or to make more unreasonable demands, because they thought that Joe Biden or European leaders would put the pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu that Hamas couldn’t on the battlefield.”
“So the reason we’re in this position, where there are still almost a 100 hostages left in Gaza, seven of whom are American, is because Joe Biden has been a weak, failed president, who hasn’t backed Israel.”
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