More on the hostages
It would be nice to have a translation for this. But some things are easy to understand even without one:
On the other hand, Hamas has finally given Israel a list of who is alive and who is dead in the group of 33 to be released in this “deal.” The answer is that 26 are purported to be alive, which is similar to Israel’s previous tally of 25.
The question on many people’s minds, including mine, is whether any members of the Bibas family are on the “alive” list. Israeli authorities are busy letting families know, so my guess is that the general public won’t know till the exchanges all occur.
Meanwhile, Trump has released some bombs that Biden and company had withheld from Israel:
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday night that he had lifted a hold put in place by former president Joe Biden on a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs for Israel.
“A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are on their way!” Trump wrote on his social media app Truth Social, without providing further details.
Wow. I obviously expected that to be emotional. I have a late teens daughter. Maybe better that there’s no transition. I can only imagine what that would be like, and I don’t want to. I am very happy for them.
“A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are on their way!”
There’s already been a lot of speculation about what Trump promised Netanyahu when the US envoy (whatsisname) pressured him to agree to the hostage release deal, even though Bibi wasn’t 100% happy with it.
I would suspect that this was one of the things they discussed.
“Why did you give the Israelis the bombs, Mr. President?
“They bought them.”
https://x.com/JewishWarrior13/status/1883495706922733727
Still my favorite line so far this year, although Vance is running a close second with his “I don’t really care, Margaret.”
https://notthebee.com/article/i-dont-really-care-margaret-jd-vance-shut-down-this-hack-cbs-reporter-over-immigration-and-became-an-instant-meme
Best Vance meme IMO
https://x.com/dale_gribbs/status/1883603888550670578
I’ve been waiting for J. E. Dyer to finally weigh in on the hostage deal, and she does not disappoint.
Her analysis does some out-of-the-box thinking about a President who is very much out-of-the-box in his actions.*
Maybe she’s correct and maybe not, as she admits, but it’s an interesting and plausible conjecture.
https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2025/01/27/trump-and-gaza/
RTWT to follow the argument behind the dots.
*Trump does NOT color between the lines; this was linked by someone else in re the Colombia Airplane Affaire, but definitely applies to more than one Trump action these days.
https://x.com/cynicalpublius/status/1883653586032238739
“…favorite line…”
Almost as good as Bret Baier’s, “No, I actually don’t” rejoinder to Madame Word Salad’s “Oh come on, you know what I’m talking about”…during that most entertaining interview…
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WRT Dyer’s analysis, it’s interesting certainly; but for all her hardheaded sense of reality, she doesn’t seem to realize that there’s no there there.
That is, there’s no way that the Palestinians can agree to the Abraham Accords…UNLESS such “agreement” is merely another elaborate subterfuge along the lines of Oslo.
The pressure on Netanyahu to do “whatever it takes” to get the hostages released demonstrates the leverage Hamas gains from the hostages. As long as they are being held, Hamas has a huge bargaining chip; when the last one is released, the pressure on Netanyahu diminishes dramatically and his ability to put more pressure on Hamas increases.
Sounds to me like an obvious reason for Hamas to refuse to return them. Cruelly wicked.
https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/jan-27-king-trump-swats-impudent
Pair up this Jan. 27 post at the Scroll with AesopFan’s Dyer post above and see whether heretofore obscure suggestions of strategic direction begin to emerge in a coherent embodiment. Or at the least, in a better, more hopeful direction than any setting conveyed in the media writ large.
Lacking at this point (so far anyhow) is any indication that the State dept’s cozy relations with the “Lebanese” authorities, blanketing that “State” with US funds will be extinguished — but then, the boss is very busy and may simply have not gotten around to it yet, so adjustments may yet be coming. I hope so.
As a blog article I read pointed out its a raw deal, hostages taken then a hard deal having to pay the ransom. Will they ever all get released, and will some be murdered who are alive this minute?
I know quelle surprised, the successor to the deuxieme bureau,* plays both sides,
*became acquainted with them, with agents of innocence that very curious first novel by david ignatius where he related the ames-salameh affair, the spy and the terrorist aide to arafat, he gave out a whole bunch of details re the palestinian ingress in beirut that provoked the civil war, the iceberg of social relations that would manifest in the next decade,
but there were some interesting details, that you don’t notice the first time around, he referenced the old man who was clearly haj amin, he seems to look down on the israeli effort, the wrath of god operation,