Today, Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Chief Executive Officer Ambassador Mark
D. Wallace and CEP President Frances F. Townsend released the following
statement after the announcement of an agreement to release 50 hostages.





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CEP STATEMENT ON THE HAMAS HOSTAGE RELEASE AGREEMENT


(New York, N.Y.) — Today, Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Chief Executive
Officer Ambassador Mark D. Wallace and CEP President Frances F. Townsend
released the following statement after the announcement of an agreement to
release 50 hostages.



“The hostage return playing out over the following days will continue to
highlight the brutal horrors inflicted by Hamas. October 7 was the worst act of
violence against Jews since the Holocaust, and the decision to split up
families will invoke yet more painful parallels.



We stand united with the victims and with the surviving families of hostages
as they rejoice in the return of their loved ones. Yet this is not a day of
celebration, and we demand the return of the approximately 190 other hostages
kidnapped by Hamas.



Hamas must be held fully to account for the heinous barbarity of October 7.
Hamas’ sponsors, the Al-Thani family, Qatar, and the Islamic Republic of Iran,
should likewise be fully held to account. Without the Al-Thani’s money and
harboring, and without Iran’s financing and military support, Hamas would not
have been able to perpetrate the monstrous events of October 7.



Undoubtedly, the smiling Emir of Qatar will make the rounds of news outlets
claiming credit for the hostages’ release, aided by his cadre of lobbyists,
lawyers, and PR agents. No amount of Qatar’s hydrocarbon-funded propaganda
should wash away the blood that stains the hands of the Al-Thanis and their
signature investments and assets around the world: the Washington Wizards,
Paris Saint Germain, Canary Wharf, CityCenterDC, The Connaught Hotel, Harrods,
among hundreds of others.



For years, despite repeated calls to end their support for extremism, the
Al-Thanis have hosted Hamas, funded Hamas, and provided the base for Islamic
extremists. The Al-Thanis and Qatarmust immediately detain and remand Ismael
Haniyeh, Khaled Meshal and the Hamas Politburo into U.S. or Israeli custody,
ensure the immediate return of all hostages, and end their support for Hamas
and other extremist groups.



While we rejoice in the hoped-for return of Americans, including children
whose parents were murdered in front of their eyes, the United States must not
rely on hostage exchanges, payments, and facilitating negotiations with
terrorists. Unless the United States reestablishes and sends a clear message of
deterrence through targeted military action, the United States and its allies
will continue to be the focus of such attacks by Hamas and the panoply of other
Iran-sponsored terrorist partners and proxies. Hostage negotiations and ransom
payments in the absence of deterring future attacks is a failed policy that
guarantees that we will be mourning with other families after future terrorist
attacks.”



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