On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that Hamas may be rejecting deals to release hostages because they don’t want hostages to tell the world how Hamas brutalized them and possibly because “as long as Israel is overreacting, Hamas, who are very unconcerned about civilian casualties, may want this to play out longer” and Hamas knew “Israel would respond and would overrespond” and that has caused people like him to criticize Israel.
Co-host John Berman asked, “Senator, you came out against the United States providing offensive weapons to Israel at this point. You said you would like to stop seeing the United States providing offensive weapons to Israel, given the situation there. We learned, just this morning, that Hamas is criticizing the most recent hostage ceasefire deal. They are said to still be considering it, but they’re very pretty critical of it so far. What does it tell you that Hamas keeps rejecting ideas and proposals for ceasefires and exchange of hostages?”
Kaine responded, “I think there [are] a couple of things, John, going on: One, this is intuition, this is not based on intel., possibly, and this would be tragic, Hamas knows that not many of the hostages may still be alive, and those that are alive, when they are released, could tell stories about their brutal mistreatment by Hamas, and they’re worried about releasing hostages who will then tell those stories publicly, that’s part of it.”
He continued, “Second, look, Hamas knew, when it attacked Israel on October 7, that Israel would respond and would overrespond. They knew that, and the overresponse is obviously creating huge political turmoil within Israel, and it’s also causing many of us who have been long supporters of Israel to say, you guys have to rein in your behavior, don’t turn your defense against Hamas into an all-out war against Gazans or Palestinians. In some ways, as long as Israel is overreacting, Hamas, who are very unconcerned about civilian casualties, may want this to play out longer to create political turmoil in Israel or in the United States. So, there’s a lot — it’s hard to determine the behavior of Hamas, because we have no contacts with them, but I’ve been worried about this deal that seems to be tantalizingly close for months now only to slip back. And those are some of my thoughts about what might be happening.”
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