[LI] Thanks for admitting reality, asshole. Nice archive picNoted Columnist Caroline Glick: "Blinken himself has devoted most of his energies to pressuring and castigating Israel."
U.S. Secretary of State Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Saturday made a stunning admission explaining how U.S. pressure on Israel emboldened the terrorist group Hamas and made it toughen its stance on the issue of hostage release.
Whenever there was open disagreement between the U.S. and Israel, Hamas backtracked on hostage release, the outgoing secretary of state acknowledged.
"Whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel," he said an interview with The New York Times. "[W]e’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages."
In NYT interview, SecState Blinken acknowledges that Hamas pulled back from agreements in ceasefire-hostage deal talks whenever there was there was “public daylight” and a perception that “pressure was growing on Israel” by the U.S. pic.twitter.com/QMaWLvCy16
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 5, 2025
Blinken’s shocking admission was met with sharp criticism in the Israeli press. The newspaper Israel Hayom commented: "Now, as the hostage release deal nears completion, the cat is out of the bag," In an interview with The New York Times, acknowledged the damage that American pressure on Israel caused to the hostage release efforts."
Noting Blinken’s own role in weakening Israel’s negotiating position, prominent Israeli author and commentator Caroline Glick wrote that "Blinken himself has devoted most of his energies to pressuring and castigating Israel."
Glick commented in her Sunday’s column for the Jewish New Syndicate (JNS):
The hostages have been held in Gaza for 457 days. And the question of why they are still there, why has Israel been unable to bring them home, gets asked with increased frustration and alarm every day from all quarters.
On Saturday, we received an answer to that question. Shortly after news broke of the release of the video of Liri Albag, The New York Times published an interview with outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Blinken said that Hamas has refused to agree to release the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire for two reasons.