President Joe Biden failed to mention the Israeli hostages once during his interview with Univision, which aired on Tuesday, and during which he demanded that Israel adopt a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza of six to eight weeks.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden called for a unilateral ceasefire in the interview, signaling a major policy shift and siding with Hamas terrorists, even as Israeli negotiators try to leverage military pressure into a hostage deal in Cairo.
The Times of Israel reported that the Biden administration tried to clarify Biden’s statement, saying that he meant a ceasefire in the context of a hostage deal. But the transcript leaves no doubt.
Biden never mentioned the hostages (original emphasis):
EA: Now that we’re talking about world leaders. In the past few days, we’ve seen increasing protests in Israel calling for the removal of Prime Minister Netanyahu and international condemnation after the death of World Central Kitchen aid workers during an Israeli airstrike. Do you think at this point, Prime Minister Netanyahu is more concerned about his political survival than he is in the national interest of his people?
JB: Well, I will tell you, I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach. I think it’s outrageous that those four, three vehicles were hit by drones and taken out on a highway where it wasn’t like it was along the shore, it wasn’t like there was a convoy moving there, etc… So I what I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country. I’ve spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They’re prepared to move in. They’re prepared to move this food in. And I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now.
On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris met with the family members of Israeli hostages.
There are 133 remaining hostages in Gaza, of whom roughly 100 are hoped to be still alive. Negotiators are trying to secure a deal, whose parameters appear to involve the release of 40 female, sick, and elderly hostages in return for a far greater number of Palestinian terror convicts and some kind of ceasefire, which Hamas wants to be permanent.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
