Israel, Hostages, and Hamas

On Monday, I linked to a tweet by Mehdi Hasan, which had linked to a tweet by Aaron Rupar, who had posted a clip of ABC's Martha Raddatz. The correspondent had asked New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu about Donald Trump's remark that if enough of his supporters voted in the upcoming presidential election, they wouldn't have to vote again.

Sununu made light of the question, Raddatz responding "O.K." and immediately changed the subject. Hasan remarked "if you want to understand the failure of U.S. journalism, especially the complete inadequacy of political interviews in this country," the exchange provided a great example. I remarked "as Hasan observed, that is how it's done all too often on broadcast news."

It was an excellent catch by Hasan (and Rupar) and this tweet of his is also very helpful. That is not because Hasan is insightful but because it brings to light excellent commentary provided by NewsNation's Chris Cuomo on Monday night, which Hasan should take to heart but obviously won't. The entire piece is very valuable, this portion beginning at 4:28:

The most frustrating thing for me is that you can have it both ways. Israel's attacks have gone on much too long. There's too much death, especially to non-Hamas women and children. Hamas must return the hostages. Over 300 days, including the Americans, that this country barely pays lip service to- a little bit at the RNC, maybe you get a little bit at the DNC. Maybe not.

The eight American hostages- whether still alive or deceased- are reportedly not able to dribble a basketball. Cuomo emphasized their plight. There is no indication that Hasan ever has referred to them. The NewsNation anchor continued

And all those other people- military, non-military, male, female, where are they? When do they get given back? Then you negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas being replaced by a regional consortium of protection and facilitated elections of non-terror actors who don't campaign on eradicating the Jews.

When are the hostages to be returned? Most of us in the west thought that they should have been returned oh, 10 or 11 months ago. At present, it appears that Benjamin Netanyahu has little or no plan for the day after- for what would become of Gaza if and when Hamas is destroyed, which obviously is his goal. 

Were Hamas to agree, Israel could now sign a temporary ceasefire in return for Hamas releasing the hostages, though surely some of them have died in captivity.  Moreover, probably not all would be returned, lest Hamas lose its primary bargaining chip. (That's the way terrorists do it, Mehdi.) Israel would be setting its war aim- destruction of Hamas- back but the world, which loves (only) dead Jews and has seemingly lost interest in having Hamas eliminated, would rejoice. (The exception would be many Islamist extremists because an insufficient number of Jews would have been killed.)

The ceasefire would serve the cause of justice and stability only if, as Cuomo suggests, there is a regional consortium of powers which would facilitate elections which would not yield a victory for terrorists, as it did for Hamas in Gaza in 2005. He adds

If this happened, God forbid, if we got hit like that in America the way they got hit in the Golan Heights on Saturday, we would level Lebanon. You know it and I know it.

It is shocking that he have been so passive about our hostages. Don't we care about our own anymore?

No, we do not. We cared enough about Britney Griner to consummate an agreement after which 

Former White House national security advisor John Bolton condemned the deal as a not a swap but a surrender by the Biden administration.

"Terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this and it endangers other Americans in the future," he said.

The deal was also criticised by Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, who helped lead the team that arrested Viktor Bout.

"Today's actions just placed a target on back of every United States citizen travelling throughout the world and they just became a commodity," he told the BBC's World Tonight.

"I think we just sent the message that it's really good business to illegally detain and if not kidnap American citizens, and it's really great to have one in your back pocket if you need them for a trade at some point."

That's what Hamas has- not only many Israelis but also several Americans in their back pocket. Imagine the USA attacked attacked, whether with the ferocity Israel was on 10/7/23 or even as it was on 7/27/24. As Cuomo repeatedly has noted, the response by our nation would be fierce and  overwhelming, and heaven help Code Pink when it would stand as the lone objector. 

The Biden Administration has been pushing the ceasefire which has been on the table for many weeks now. Both the President and his understudy and would-be successor realize that continuation, and especially escalation, of the war would be vey harmful to heading off the extraordinary danger posed by Donald Trump's candidacy.  Regrettably an outlier, Chris Cuomo understands clearly what is going on in Gaza.

Sorry Chris, those of us who want a ceasefire condemn the killing of kids anywhere and by anyone and want a ceasefire to protect all kids, on all sides.

Those who oppose a ceasefire are the ones who don’t care about 14,000 plus Palestinian kids murdered by Israel. https://t.co/15pJotB6PZ

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 30, 2024

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Some Are Not So Lucky

Credit to D.C. Johnston for referring to Paul Whelan. It is unknown, though, whether Tucker Carlson has been a "useful idiot" or rather strategically shopping a pro-Putin line for fun and profit or perverse ideological preference.

Tucker -- a useful
idiot in Kremlin speak -- meant to say:

I'm happily letting a murderous dictator use me as his propaganda tool - while real American journalist Evan Gershkovich of the @WSJ
languishes in prison - because I'm desperate for attention, a coward and a stooge. https://t.co/bqtkmjd6fe

— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) February 6, 2024

The term probably originated from a 1996 book written by a Yuri Annenkov, who was  commissioned in 1921 to paint a portrait of Vladimir Lenin and who after the dictator's death was given access to the personal papers of the dictator.  He allegedly found that Lenin had written

To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie's aim. The whole world's capitalists and their governments, as they pant to win the Soviet market, will close their eyes to the above-mentioned reality and will thus transform themselves into men who are deaf, dumb and blind. They will give us credits . . . they will toil to prepare their own suicide.'

Only Tucker Carlson himself knows whether he has willingly become dead, dumb and blind or instead understands what Vladimir Putin is up to and approves. In January, a Russian court ordered that the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich

be extended until 30 March which means the Wall Street Journal reporter will spend over one year behind bars as he awaits trial.

Mr Gershkovich, his newspaper, and the US deny the espionage charges.

US officials have called for his immediate release.

"The grounds for Evan's detention are baseless," the American embassy in Moscow tweeted on Friday. "Journalism is not a crime. We continue to call for Evan's immediate release"...

It is the fourth time his detention has been extended and as a result he will continue to be held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. Mr Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty...

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US and Russia were discussing Mr Gershkovich's possible release, and were working to find a "mutually acceptable" outcome.

The US government has designated the reporter as being "wrongfully detained", a status which requires it to work to free him....

Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is accused of failing to register as a foreign agent and is facing a jail term of up to 15 years.

And then there is former US Marine Paul Whelan, who was given a 16-year prison sentence in 2020 after being arrested in Moscow in 2018 for suspicion of spying. When Whelan was not part of a prisoner swap in December of 2022, President Biden claimed that his Administration "will never give up" on securing release of the Michigan native.

However, Whelan's brother termed the failure to get the Michigan native released a "catastrophe for Paul." Last December, the prisoner accused President Biden of a "serious betrayal" by, as the New York Post put it, "abandoning him in a brutal Russian prison on bogus spying charges." Whelan maintained "they've basically abandoned me." 

That contrasted sharply with the case of Britney

Griner, who was arrested at a Moscow airport in February on drug charges and later sentenced to 9 years in prison, was released as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The swap, which took months to negotiate and has drawn mixed reaction in the US for not also including fellow detainee Paul Whelan, occurred at an airport tarmac in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

Shortly after the swap was successfully completed, US officials connected Griner to her family. That call “was as moving as it was unforgettable” to hear Griner speak on the phone with her wife, Cherelle, who was present for an Oval Office meeting, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said.

“Their strength, their resilience, has been nothing but short of inspiring,” Blinken said.

Blinken said nothing of the strength or the resilience of the Whelan family nor of the family of Evan Gershkovich, who had been arrested eight months earlier while reporting on the Russian war on Ukraine. 

Ultimately, the Administration got Britney Griner back because it wanted to get Britney Griner back. It could have been because of her gender, race, sexual preference, or profession. Most likely it was the latter, the clamor from the WNBA to rescue. the women's professional basketball star. "With each case," Paul Whelan maintains, "my case is going to the back of the line." But without Griner's qualifications, every case seems to go to the back of the line.

Something Carlson stated may apply to this situation. "There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously,." he says of his attempt to lend credibility to the Soviet dictator. And while there are great risks dealing with Vladimir Putin, the risk in leaving behind anyone but a Britney Griner is very much limited for an American President.

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Biden On the Defensive

This is one ludicrous tweet:

Elon Musk is showing America what it looks like to be on offense.

I hope our Republican lawmakers are taking notes.

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 12, 2022

No need to take notes- Republicans are masters at this.

GOP officials could have applauded the swap of Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner. They might have, in the manner of John Bolton, defended Republican President Donald Trump for refusing to consider bargaining with the Kremlin for Griner. They could have could have argued that the Administration should have cut a better deal. 

They could have followed the lead of Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who decried leaving behind "Marine Paul Whalen and teacher Mark Fogel."

But Rubio has been an outlier among Republicans.  Senators Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, and  James Lankford;  Representatives Mike Rogers, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Banks, Kevin Hern, Nicole Malliotakis, Mike Walz, Scott Perry, Lisa McClain, Adam Kinzinger, Tim Walberg, Bill Keating, Byron Donalds, and Representative-elect John Block- all criticized the Administration's deal and cited their concern that Paul Whelan was not released. Representatives French Hall and Haley Stevens also name-checked the disgraced ex-Marine, though were less negative than the others.

It has had an immediate effect, in which 

American officials will hold talks “this week” with Russian leaders about negotiations to release former Marine Paul Whelan, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday.

“With respect to the question of whether we’ve had engagement with the Russian Federation on the Whelan case, we will have an engagement with them this week,” Sullivan told reporters.

Although Whelan was court-martialed and was given a bad-conduct discharge, he is still a "Marine" or "ex-Marine" to Republicans, who have been unsparing in their criticism of the President. Representative Banks remarked “Biden just returned the ‘Merchant of Death,’ an international arms dealer convicted of conspiring to kill Americans, to Putin and left former Marine Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained for over four years, to rot in a Russian prison." The price of freeing Whelan has been bid up, as Republicans have anticipated.

Reportedly, "according to a senior Biden administration official," Russia is willing to discuss Whelan because "they have things they want in the world." Reportedly, that is Vadim Krasikov, "a former colonel in Russia's domestic spy organization serving a life sentence for murder in Germany." However Washington is balking at releasing an individual in foreign custody who is described by Secretary of State spokesman John Kirby as an "assassin."

Vladimir Putin cannot help but realize that, having gained the release of Griner and confronted with harsh accusations from Republicans for not doing the same for an ex-Marine, President Biden has been painted into a corner. Freedom for Paul Whelan won't come cheap.

 "Politics ain't beanbag," the fictional Mr. Dooley once said.  As if to prove him right, Tim Scott, in a manner similar to his GOP colleagues, charged "Leaving Paul in Russia to Putin’s whim would be a disgraceful abdication of Biden’s leadership." Joe Biden has heard, and the bill for bringing Whelan back to the USA will be steep.

 

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Hypocrisy, A Family Attribute

It should not escape notice how often Republicans slam the Viktor Bout for Britney Griner deal as one for a "celebrity" without ever labeling Griner "a star basketball player." It's almost as if there is a certain genus of voter which believes that athletes- though not celebrities- deserve the consideration other people do not. Condemning the transaction, here Donald Trump Jr. says "in America, as a female celebrity, minority, lesbian she probably felt she could be above the law.

Junior says the Biden Admin didn’t free Paul Whelan because he wasn’t woke like Griner: “There’s a level of arrogance Griner had going into Russia .. because in America, as a female celebrity, minority, lesbian she probably felt she could be above the law.” pic.twitter.com/Jf3nDzVuHB

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) December 10, 2022

"  

Probably not anywhere would she believe that. However, the glaring problem with statements from son Trump and father Trump are their profession of love for Paul Whelan, the ex-Marine still in Russian custody. 

Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother #PaulWhelan's wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia (zero). I don't suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero) https://t.co/7lnSF0zJxL

— David Whelan (@davidpwhelan) December 9, 2022

That tweet will be filed under "things I wish I had said but didn't." 

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Willful Blindness

Merriam-Webster defines "wise" as "marked by deep understanding, keen discernment and a capacity for sound judgement." With Bakari Sellers a lawyer, if anyone still thought that being a lawyer confers wisdom even marginally beyond other citizens, they are properly disabused.

Y’all mad Biden went and got an American? Really? Our President went and got one of us. Are you mad because of her hair? Because of who she loves? Because of her skin color?
How do y’all pick and choose which Americans matter?#BGFree

— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) December 8, 2022

This past week, The New York Times reported "In July, a senior State Department official said that there were between 40 and 50 Americans being wrongfully detained by foreign governments."

Chief among them may be Marc Fogel, who had been teaching the children of American diplomats and was "arrested in August 2021 when he tried to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana that had been prescribed for chronic pain."

  " 

As with Brittney Griner, Fogel was arrested with a small amount of drugs prescribed for medical use.  Sellers, implying that the Griner deal has been criticized because she is gay, black, or wears her hair differently than do whites, evidently is pleased that Foley- and others- have not been given the same attention. 

We know at least one reason the Biden Administration moved heaven and earth to gain the release of Griner and has not done so with others. Simon Hankinson, a Senior Research Fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center of the Heritage Foundation, explained four months ago

The U.S. government distinguishes between Americans arrested and given due process and those who are "wrongfully detained." in the former case, U.S. embassies and consulates provide consular services, including prison visits, assistance with finding legal counsel, advocating with the host government for fair treatment of prisoners, and protesting any abuse.

In cases of "wrongful detention," the State Department makes additional efforts to obtain the release of the detained, including through diplomatic pressure and negotiation. A recent executive order from President Joe Biden expanded and emphasized those additional steps.

Griner, unlike many of the others detained abroad, was classified as "wrongfully detained."  

We have don't know why her imprisonment prompted that designation but we do know that on May 17

NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced he and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert are working "side-by-side" in securing Griner's release. The process led Silver to communicate with "every level" of government.

Then on June 22

Forty advocacy groups including the National Organization for Women, Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD said they appreciated the Biden administration's efforts, which included labeling the 31-year-old "wrongfully detained" in May and assigning diplomats to work for her release.

But they said more needs to be done.

"The U.S. Government has acknowledged that Brittney is essentially a political pawn in classifying her as wrongfully detained," the groups said in a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris that was seen by Reuters.

"While these have been critically important measures, we now urge you to make a deal to get Brittney back home to America immediately and safely."

Not to be outdone, in early July

More than 1,000 Black women have signed a letter to President Biden demanding the administration step up its efforts to free WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian detainment.

The letter, signed by 1,200 women of all ages and professions, was the work of Win With Black Women, a collective of intergenerational and intersectional Black women across the nation. 

“It’s been more than 134 days and in our opinion that’s just 134 days too many for anyone to be subjected to the conditions [Griner] has been,” said Jotaka Eaddy, founder of Win With Black Women.

Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury and an Olympic gold medalist, was detained by the Russian Federal Customs Service in February for possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil, a contraband substance in Russia. Her trial began July 1.

Signers of the letter included Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.; Terri Jackson, executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association; and Dawn Staley, basketball Hall of Famer, three-time Olympic gold medalist and head coach of South Carolina Gamecocks.

In a statement to The Hill, Jackson said the letter helps the organization “raise the alarm and convey a clear message of urgency to the President about our sister.”

“This letter in support of Brittney is an embrace from a powerful group of women that strengthens our resolve and allows us to keep fighting for BG,” Jackson said. “We are not The 144 without her. We need BG back home now with her family.”

Among the individuals Win With Black Women did not embrace as "our sister" are Fogel, the increasingly famous Paul Whelan, the relatively obscure Danny Fenster, and the roughly 40 other Americans who have been designated "wrongfully detained." Nor, evidently and not coincidentally, have they been the subjects of as much effort on the part of the Biden Administration.

Thus Bakari Sellers, lacking in discernment and sound judgement, is not wise. But he is clever. Brittney Griner was afforded preferential treatment because of race, gender, sexual preference, or celebrity status. Or perhaps she was the beneficiary of the squeaky wheel getting the grease because of race, gender, sexual preference, and/or celebrity status.  Whichever it was, or whatever combination it was, Sellers has executed a deft sleight of hand in which he has become the champion of privilege while so accusing critics.

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Beyond Whelan

This is fairly typical of Republican criticism of the Bout for Griner trade made by the Biden Administration:

Joe Biden left a Marine stranded behind enemy lines.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) December 8, 2022

And so is this:

How could Biden leave Paul Whelan behind when he gave Putin back a notorious criminal known as the "Merchant of Death"?

This is a complete slap in the face to the Whelan family.

Really shocking, even for Joe Biden.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) December 9, 2022

I don't buy Biden saying they didn't have a choice to bring U.S. Marine Whelan home.

When do we start dictating the terms to Putin, the Iranian Regime, terrorists, & our adversaries around the world? pic.twitter.com/iAVn1oLfyD

— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) December 9, 2022

The hypocrite-in-Chief, who as President refused to be bothered by Whelan's imprisonment, posted on his Truth Social "Why wasn't former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking. What a 'stupid' and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!"

Whelan deserved to be released by Russia, just as Brittney deserved and was. After making an offer, in May Secretary of State spokesman Kirby had stated “We urge the Russians to move positively on that proposal, so we can get these two individuals home. The details of it, I think, are best left between us and our Russian counterparts.” A few days ago, he stated that he was he was “led to believe that things were moving in the right direction and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon.”

The President’s critics have not only focused on Whelan, their expressed concern for those left behind in Russia has been confined to the ex-Marine.  Why is that?

The answer, at least partially, is that he is a Marine. Not currently, but formerly. After enlisting in the Marines, he rose to the level of staff sergeant, served two tours in Iraq, and later was discharged for bad conduct “after being convicted of several charges related to larceny, according to the records.”

That was in 2008, fourteen years ago, and if the Administration’s negotiators didn’t resemble marks at a poker table, the deal Joe Biden signed off on wouldn’t have been one-sided.

While determined to bring a basketball star home, the Administration should address the plight of other Americans, including doing work important to both the American people and their government.

Marc Fogel taught at the Anglo-American School in Moscow for many years. He was a fantastic teacher. He served his country by helping to educate the children of many American diplomats & military officers in Russia, including my son. He should not die in a Russian prison. https://t.co/o4zLuIFS4Z

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 27, 2022

The Washington Post in July reported

“There’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind,” Jane Fogel said. “It’s terrifying. I would hope that President Biden and especially first lady Jill Biden, who is an educator, realize the importance of including Marc in addition to Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.”

In suburban Pittsburgh, Jane Fogel has been watching the Griner case spool out and wondered whether her husband has been forgotten. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, received a call from the president. The Fogels have been stalled at the mid-functionary level of the U.S. State Department. Speculation about a possible prisoner swap before Blinken’s announcement on Wednesday had earlier trickled into his Russian prison cell, compounding his anxiety.

“That hurt,” Marc Fogel wrote in a letter home referencing the prisoner-exchange reports. “Teachers are at least as important as bballers.”

Surely he jests. He believes teachers are at least as important as basketball players. I believe teachers are at least as important as basketball players.

But whatever the First Lady's professional background, the Biden Administration doesn't believe teachers are at least as important as basketball players. Democrats are partial, as Representative Walz maintains, to celebrities- and being a lesbian and black didn't hurt her. And Republicans are avoiding the opportunity presented to them in promoting the importance of teachers. After all, Foley wasn't a Marine.

So Marc Fogel- and others- languish. They are not stars, and they are not ex-Marines. And, so, they get left behind, unsurprising given the quality of the people we've been electing for years.

 

 

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Uneven

This is exactly what President Joe Biden and the State Department wanted to hear:

David Whelan, Paul Whelan's brother, says: "Any time an American comes home, it's wonderful news ... We do worry about what's in Paul's future. I think it's become clear that the U.S. doesn't have any concessions that Russia wants for Paul." pic.twitter.com/xkTpJbaR0Y

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) December 8, 2022

Amid criticism of the Biden Administration for failure to secure the release of Paul Whelan when it traded convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout for Britney Griner, Whelan's brother has applauded the deal which, reportedly unavoidably, left the other high-profile captive of the Kremlin behind. His written statement included "The Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen.

In so doing, he emphasized the importance of bringing back to the USA political prisoners, of whom his brother is one. In supporting the "deal that was possible" rather than waiting for an unlikely one, he was encouraging the Administration to do the same for his brother. And "you got the release of a gay black basketball star and left my brother behind" probably would not have gone over very well.

Gaining buy-in (publicly, anyway) from the Whelan family, whose supporters on Twitter are incensed that the ex-Marine remains in Russian custody, was critical for the Administration. It gives it breathing room to continue negotiating for the release of Whelan, an outcome now made a little likelier, notwithstanding the Administration's significantly reduced leverage. Going into the 2024 election after securing the release of a basketball star while leaving behind an ex-Marine would not be good for Joe Biden's political health, nor that of his party.

The President, as well as his acolytes in traditional and social media, will contend that this is the best deal that could have been made. In his statement Thursday morning announcing the swap, Biden contended "This was not a choice of which Americans to bring home. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's."

Tastefully, the President has chosen not to turn the deal into a victory lap, which would be unwarranted. And good thing, too, because asked in late May about speculation that convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout would be part of a bargain with the Kremlin

White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday the focus was on getting Griner and Whelan home.

“We urge the Russians to move positively on that proposal, so we can get these two individuals home,” Kirby said. “The details of it, I think, are best left between us and our Russian counterparts.”

Saale said releasing Bout would send a message that detaining Americans can yield major concessions from the U.S. government. But the administration, he added, is stuck “between a rock and a hard place” at this stage. A prisoner swap of this sort is “probably one of the only ways they’re going to get [Griner and Whelan] out.”

Another former official who worked on international prisoner exchanges said the Russians have raised the issue of Bout’s release many times before, but such an exchange “has always been a hard no” from the U.S. Justice Department.

“I know Blinken is having discussions, but I can’t imagine Blinken agreeing to it,” said the former official, adding that “lower-level criminals” who are nearing the end of their sentences would be more likely candidates for an exchange. The former official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing case.

So make no mistake about it. The USA has gone in 6-7 months from the likelihood that the State Department would be unwilling to trade Viktor Bout for even two Americans, Griner and Whelan, to a deal in which the notorious criminal is exchanged for only one of the Americans.

Arguing that a deal is better than no deal, officials will applaud this outcome, as they will when an agreement eventually is reached for the release of Paul Whelan.  But given the terms reached this time with our adversary, the most reasonable conclusion is that we've been had.

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