Axios reports that anonymous White House officials were "shocked" that Hamas executed the hostages and have now hardened their negotiating position even more.

They almost think Hamas doesn't want a deal. 

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Read this now and understand what is actually going on.

Israel has agreed to every single concession it’s been asked to make. Only to see Hamas move the goalposts.

Finally(!) this White House wonders if it’s been playing Hamas’s game all along. https://t.co/O4ZoaW2b0R

— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) September 5, 2024

Who could have guessed that an organization that has told us time and time again that they want nothing less than the murder of every Jew and the total destruction of Israel actually wants to murder every Jew and destroy Israel utterly?

Biden and his top advisers were shocked after Hamas killed six hostages, among them U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and have started to rethink the way forward in the negotiations over the deal.

• At the same time, Hamas' new demand to increase the number of Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal raised even more concerns and questions among U.S. negotiators about whether an agreement is possible, U.S. officials said.
• "We still think the deal is the only way to save the lives of the hostages and stop the war. But the executions not only increased our sense of urgency but also called into question Hamas' willingness to do a deal of any kind," a U.S. official said.

I could have saved them some time, energy, effort, and a lot of lives by telling them on October 7th. Anybody with even an ounce of common sense and the most passing interest and knowledge in Middle Eastern history knew that Hamas is an Iranian proxy with maximalist goals, utter hatred for Jews, and an ideology that promotes the idea of martyrdom for Muslims. 

Instead of doing something so obvious as talking to people who aren't idiots, the Biden administration has spent the past 11 months holding Israel back from doing the necessary thing and destroying Hamas. And in doing so they have caused enormously increased suffering on both sides of the war. 

Any military strategist or historian will tell you that the way to decrease suffering, in the long run, is to make any war as short as possible. Quick, violent, destructive wins may look ugly, but long, drawn-out wars cause even more death and destruction. It is almost a law of nature. 

• A concern raised in the situation room meeting was that the U.S. could press Israel to reduce Israel Defense Forces deployed along the Egypt-Gaza border or on other issues, only to discover that Hamas doesn't agree to other parts of the deal. That could mean the new offer would only become the foundation for future negotiations that would be more favorable to Hamas, a U.S. official said.
• During the situation room meeting, Biden was briefed about the Department of Justice plan to publish indictments against Hamas leaders, which have been sealed since February, one U.S. official said.
• On Wednesday, Hamas officials continued to stress that the U.S., Qatar and Egypt need to pressure Israel to agree to its demands.

We are led by fools. No doubt Bibi Netanyahu has been telling the Biden administration these things since 10/7, and they merely saw him as a right-wing warmonger who must be wrong. Surely, if only Israel made concessions to and friends with Hamas we could all come to some sort of agreement. 

Idiots. 

Yet here we are, 11 months after the most brutal day in Israeli history, and the US government is slowly realizing that Hamas are not the good guy in all this. 

The Biden administration has had the same illusion with Iran, the Taliban, and the Houthis. They cannot get it through their heads that sometimes you must defeat your enemies instead of appeasing them. You appease when dealing with friends and neutrals. You must unconditionally defeat your enemies. 

It's not a complex concept. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the families of the U.S. hostages on Sunday that Biden is considering presenting an updated and final proposal for the hostage-release and ceasefire deal this week and asking Israel and Hamas to respond.

• But in recent days, the White House appears to be less enthusiastic about that option. Biden's advisers are still holding talks with Qatar and Egypt on the updated proposal but U.S. officials say they don't want to predict the timeline for presenting it.

This is so stupid. These people are stupid. And dangerous. They are the Neville Chamberlains to Donald Trump's Churchill. 

And they are the reason the world is going to hell. We have to get them out.