Last living American hostage held by Hamas expected to be released.

 

Edan Alexander's Grandmother holds up pictures of him. AP.

The last living American hostage held by Hamas, Edan Alexander, is expected to be released soon. AP. Hamas decided to release him as a sign of good faith to the Trump administration and as an effort to restart stalled cease fire talks. Alexander is a Israeli-American who was captured on October 7th while serving as a member of the IDF. The release was negotiated directly between the United States and Hamas. The release will require a several hour cease fire and for Israel to agree to that. 59 hostages remain in Israel, though only twenty or so are still alive. 

My Comment:

The American diplomats are certainly busy this weekend. Fresh of the cease fire with the Houthis in Yemen, this past weekend Trump, Rubio and all the other diplomats got a cease fire between India and Pakistan, may have gotten Russia and Ukraine to finally meet and now may have even gotten the one American hostage released. Not to mention trade deals with the United Kingdom and, more critically, China. And we are even talking to Iran too! 

This wide ranging and very active diplomacy has shown a huge difference between Trump and Biden. Under Biden diplomacy had largely been abandoned. There wasn't really much of an effort to end the war in Ukraine, for example, and it was President Elect Trump that negotiated the first cease fire between Israel and Hamas. That deal failed in the end, but it shows that at least Trump tries to end conflicts. 

I do think that this too is a message to Israel. There are rumors that the Trump administration is sick and tired of the way Israel has been acting, in terms of saber rattling and such. They want the wars between Israel and Hamas (and the Houthis in Yemen) to be over, but Israel hasn't been seen to negotiate. Trump has already negotiated a separate peace with Houthis and this could be another example, this time with Hamas. If Israel doesn't start negotiating even after Hamas released Alexander then I think relations might even break. 

It's possible Israel could even torpedo this deal, as it requires a short cease fire of a couple of hours, presumably so Alexander can be released safely. I haven't heard of Israel not wanting this deal, but if they choose to, they absolutely could prevent it from happening. If it does, expect Trump to cut them loose. 

Regardless, I think Israel will get the message. The war in Gaza has gone on too long and I think most people are sick of it. I have almost zero sympathy for Hamas or the people of Gaza that supported them, but even I think the war has gone on long enough. It's time for both sides to come to some kind of agreement and hopefully this release is going to be the first step. 

Of course, it's very possible that Hamas will be the ones that screw things up. They too have kept this war going long after any sane person would have ended it. They may decide to use this release as a stalling tactic and might not be serious about ending the war too. But I sincerely hope that isn't the case. 

As for me, I would be happy if the war finally ended, mostly because it's an animating issue on the left and I'm really sick of having to hear them whine about it. Like I said, I have very little sympathy for Hamas or the pro-Gaza people, so I don't care too much what happens, but I would love for this to be a memory before the 2026 midterms. Or this summer, for that matter...