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A series of dramatic events unfolded in recent days that have had a slight, but noticeable impact on the dynamics surrounding the war in Gaza. First, there was a daring hostage rescue. Then, there were reports of American negotiations with Hamas separate from Israel. Shortly thereafter,

**The Wall Street Journal** released correspondence by Hamas's Gaza leader and the man behind the 10/7 massacre, Yahya Sinwar.

**Operation Arnon**

On Saturday, Israeli military, security and police personnel engaged in a daring raid to rescue four Israeli hostages from Hamas's clutches in central Gaza. The raid was successful. All four hostages were brought home, alive.

The hostages rescued are: Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41.

Left: Noa Argamani as she was taken hostage. Right: Noa reunited with her father.

We thank God for the hostages' safe return. But as we do, we mourn the tragic loss of Israel Border Police Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora (36) of blessed memory. The operation was named in Chief Insp. Zmora's honor. He leaves behind a wife and two children. The bravery and tenacity displayed by Israel's warriors to save these four people is truly praiseworthy, but war has a cost.

Israel is a nation at war. Week-by-week, more soldiers fall. Day-by-day, an entire country feels a catch in its throat with each breaking news alert. Was someone's loved one killed by Hamas? Did a hostage family receive the worst news? The best? And for tens of thousands, these daily terrors are not even experienced in the peace of their homes, as they are refugees in their own country, pushed far from its borders due to the bloodlust of their neighbors.

**How to Harm a Relationship**

As Israeli leaders were giving the order to rescue hostages, it appears the Biden administration was negotiating with Hamas directly for the release of the Americans still held in terrorist captivity. We hope and pray for the release of every hostage, and if the Biden administration can figure out a way to bring the American hostages home alive without ensuring more death and destruction by Hamas, we wish them Godspeed in their efforts.

There are those who would argue that the Biden administration is negotiating behind Israel's back, and we understand the position. After all, the Biden administration has nothing we know of that it could trade, save sellout Israel. But if the trade is pressuring Israel and thereby enabling Hamas to engage in spreading more carnage, no American could tolerate such a deal to empower the devil.

At the end of the day, if the Biden administration strikes a deal to see the Americans freed, the Israelis will facilitate it. The U.S. can always count on Israel; that's not even a question. Moreover, the question we should be asking is far deeper than the specifics of any Biden-Hamas trade; the tragic question of this moment is can Jerusalem trust Washington?

There's a reason it's clich?? to say that it is at moments like this that you find out who your true friends are.

**The Mastermind of 10/7**

There's also a reason that the Obama-Biden approach to the Middle East is a failure: they do not want to acknowledge what the enemy really is for fear of angering the fringe left.?? Instead of the Sen. John Fetterman approach to the conflict, which seems to be to just call it as he sees it regardless of the politics, the Obama-Biden approach views the conflict first through politics and only later as agents of governance.

The linchpin to the Obama-Biden approach is to ignore the central abomination that has allowed Hamas to remain extant: hiding behind Palestinian women and children. But ignoring that great sin should get a lot harder.

This week,

**The Wall Street Journal** published letters attributed to the aforementioned Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar - the IDF's current Ace of Spades.??

In the letters, Sinwar betrays that he has completely shed the basic moral burdens of humanity. His approach to humanity is monstrous. He lauds and welcomes Palestinian deaths for their public relations value. He desires death and destruction on both sides of the Gaza border. As war rages, he claims to have Israel exactly where he wants her.

The list of bloodcurdling anecdotes from his missives goes on, but the truth is no one should be surprised by any of this. We already know of Hamas's brutality; we've seen it on tape. We can never and should never remove the images seared into our brains of what Sinwar and his barbarians wrought.

Nonetheless, the Biden administration now has yet another window into the brain of the mastermind of the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. Yahya Sinwar is a bloodthirsty terrorist with extreme delusions of grandeur who is using the Palestinian people as pawns in a 7th-century war-ravaged fantasy. Perhaps the pressure then, should be on Hamas and its patrons in Qatar and Turkey, not on our ally fighting a madman's terrorist army. After all it is Hamas that on Tuesday rejected yet another cease-fire, not Israel.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team

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