(Official Washington Examiner editorial, May 12) Does President Joe Biden even know that Hamas is holding five American hostages? Does anybody in his administration care? Do the administration’s water carriers in the liberal media care, either?
One would think not, judging by the rarity of mentions of this crisis by the president, his spokespeople, or the news media. The absence of focused public concern is inexcusable. Even more inexcusable, unless there are covert operations in the offing, is the lack of action, whether diplomatic or by military special forces, to try to return U.S. citizens to safety and freedom.
Biden seems primarily concerned with putting counterproductive pressure on Israel to stop its military actions without putting equal or greater pressure on Hamas. His inattention to the American hostages is astonishing. He met their families in December and featured them as guests on March 7 at his State of the Union speech. On April 24, he also quietly met with one of the few hostages who has been released, 4-year-old Abigail Mor Edan. But Biden left it to national security adviser Jake Sullivan to say anything about the meeting.
The president seems not to want to be seen involving himself in the issue. A cynic might think he is keen to avoid being tainted by their captivity in an election year. That cynic might also think that he especially wants to avoid the subject because it makes the terrorists look bad and his far-Left supporters, who believe only Israel can be evil, don’t like the counter-narrative of facts.
Biden issued an anodyne joint statement with 16 other nations on April 25, but other than such occasional references and minimal expressions of concern, the past seven months have been notable for his relative silence. Neither Biden nor his appointees nor the media seem even to mention the hostages’ names….. [The full editorial is at this link.]
