It Is Biden and Harris Who Are Not Doing Enough to Free the Hostages

by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  September 22, 2024 at 5:00 am

• Why should Hamas agree to a ceasefire when its refusal is blamed on Israel by the president of the United States? In addition, when Biden blames Israel, he encourages other allies, such as Great Britain, Canada, France and Germany, to do the same.

• [Biden] blamed Netanyahu alone without even mentioning Hamas. And this was after Hamas terrorists had murdered six hostages, including an American.

• Although Biden did say that the Hamas killers would pay a price for the murders of the hostages, he did not say that Iran— which controls Hamas— would pay any price, including increased sanctions, or worse, unless the hostages, including the Americans, are released, unharmed, immediately.

• [Biden and Harris] should warn Iran that if Hamas harms any American hostages, we will regard that as an attack on the US that warrants a military response against Iranian military targets.

• Instead, Biden is demanding that Israel compromise its security by allowing Hamas to return to its terrorist tunnels under the critical Philadelphi Corridor.

• Iran's proxies are its human shields. Unless Iran itself is punished for the terrorism of its surrogates, the mullahs will have no incentive to stop, and we, the Middle East, and South America will all be less secure – especially after Iran unveils its nuclear bombs.

• Biden should be placing maximum pressure on the criminals — Hamas and Iran — who continue to endanger our citizens and those of our ally. Instead, he is pressuring and blaming the victim, Israel, which has no control over the perpetrators.

• When Iranians took American diplomats hostage in 1979, and then ordered its surrogates to kill hundreds of US Marines in Lebanon in 1983, it essentially declared war on our nation. Now their surrogates have kidnapped and murdered more Americans. Our responses to these acts of belligerency have been woefully insufficient. Instead, the Obama administration enriched the Iranian mullahs in exchange for a controversial nuclear deal that would have enabled Iran to have as many nuclear weapons as it liked after about a dozen years...

• The message sent by this administration's weakness and lack of will is being heard loud and clear not only by Iran but by our other enemies as well.

President Joe Biden should be placing maximum pressure on the criminals — Hamas and Iran — who continue to endanger our citizens and those of our ally. Instead, he is pressuring and blaming the victim, Israel, which has no control over the perpetrators. Pictured: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a citizen of the United States and Israel who was murdered by Hamas after being held hostage by in Gaza for almost 10 months, appears, with his left hand amputated, in a Hamas propaganda video published on April 24, 2024.

US President Joe Biden's off-the-cuff, one-word answer — "no"— to the question of whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing enough to free Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity and get a cease-fire, will only encourage Hamas to up its demands and refuse to agree to a reasonable deal. So far, it appears as if Hamas, instead of negotiating, has just been saying, "no." The US is reportedly no longer expecting a ceasefire before the November 5 US presidential election.

Biden's remark sends a dangerous message to Israel's and America's enemies that, by continuing to terrorize and hold hostages, they can turn the Biden administration against Israel.

Why should Hamas agree to a ceasefire when its refusal is blamed on Israel by the president of the United States? In addition, when Biden blames Israel, he encourages other allies, such as Great Britain, Canada, France and Germany, to do the same.

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Two Great Classics: Values for Our Leaders

by Lawrence Kadish  •  September 22, 2024 at 4:30 am

Pictured: Robert Shaw, Susannah York and Paul Scofield socialize in a scene from the film 'A Man For All Seasons', 1966. (Photo by Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)

As we read the summaries below of Robert Bolt's "A Man for All Seasons" and John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," it could help us determine our selections when we consider what values we would like for our leaders.

"A Man for All Seasons"

What is the main message in "A Man for All Seasons"? A synopsis of the play, about a king and his chancellor, highlights the importance of integrity and conscience, especially at a time when those in power discredit those values and even punish, sometimes with death, those who insist on them?

Why is the play called A Man for All Seasons?

"The title," notes Wikipedia, "reflects playwright Bolt's portrayal of More as the ultimate man of conscience, remaining true to his principles and religion under all circumstances and at all times."

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A Visit to French Silicon Valley

by Amir Taheri  •  September 22, 2024 at 4:00 am

• The leftism of the Left Bank had little effect on French politics, which steadily shifted towards the right. What is left of the French left now waves the flag of Palestine rather than the Red Flag. As my old pal and I toured the cafés, we noticed the disappearance of the "golden days".

• In the cafés we visited, no one had a book or a newspaper. Instead, many were on mobile phones, even when facing each other. The conversations we eavesdropped on were about real estate prices, holiday destinations and gossip. Nobody wanted to save mankind from the evil of capitalism.

Pictured: Café de Flore, one of the oldest cafés in Paris, and once a popular spot for writers and philosophers, pictured in August 2024. (Photo by Olympia de Maismont/AFP via Getty Images)

A couple of weeks ago, I had a visit from a schoolmate I had not seen since the "good old days" of pre-Khomeini Iran.

Under the Shah, he spent eight months in prison because he was supposedly on the left. Under the mullahs, he spent five years in prison on a charge of pro-monarchy activities. In other words, he was stung twice for opposite reasons.

This was his first visit to Paris, thanks to a visa obtained by bribing the consul in one of the European Union embassies in Tehran. I wondered where to take him before he leaves for Germany. As he had been one of the first Iranians to graduate as an IT engineer, I thought a prank might amuse him.

I suggested we visit the French "Silicon Valley".

"Do they have a Silicon Valley?" he asked.

"Sure, they do," I answered. "It is where the French discovered artificial intelligence long before Americans."

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