S3 E2. Will Pres.-elect Trump’s Threats Help to Free Hamas' Hostages?

President-elect Donald Trump threatens that if the 100 hostages held by Hamas since October 7 aren’t freed by January 20, there will be “all hell to pay!” What does that actually mean? Jonathan Conricus and I get into the political and military complexities embedded in the issue, which also enrage us. Because we both feel that the hostages should never have been seized in the first place. Of course. But they were. Fifteen months later we reflect on the very widespread rage, despair, and frustration among Israelis. How can it be that they remain in Hamas hell 15 months on? Children, the elderly, women, soldiers, and men. We know that many have been murdered. We know that they have been tortured, sexually abused, humiliated, starved, denied medical attention, and treated with a level of cruelty and sadism that is simply incomprehensible. Within Israel, discussion of the fate of the hostages has intensified in recent weeks for several reasons: Hamas has been releasing more videos of hostages—a form of mass psychological torture that generates global attention; they have been disseminating information on Telegram channels; and there has been a growing willingness by all parties to return to the negotiating table in Doha. What has changed? The explicit threats uttered repeatedly by Donald Trump and repeated yesterday. We have just under two weeks until he is sworn into office. If the hostages are not released by then, what exactly is Trump contemplating doing? You can either listen to the podcast version here or click on the link to our YouTube post, which is below. Our YouTube channel is new, and we’d really appreciate it if you’d check it out. Please subscribe. Like. Algorithms. It matters.

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This week is full-on hostage coverage. With freedom comes responsibility. We have a voice. As we have done since October 7, we are highlighting the desperate plight of the hostages. Please. Share this widely. If not us, then who?

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Jonathan Conricus is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. He served in the IDF for 24 years, four of them as spokesman during the intense 11 days of the Guardian of the Walls Operation between Israel and Hamas. Now a reserve officer with the rank of Lt. Col., he is a sought-after speaker internationally and is frequently seen on major television news shows. Jonathan was born in Jerusalem to a Swedish father and an Israeli mother and spent his formative years in Sweden.

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