The world is understandably in shock over the by murder of six hostages.
Human beings heartlessly discarded by terrorists in a Gaza tunnel.
Hamas martyred an American citizen, among others.
This is supersizing Hamas’ profile in our political season.
It stuns an otherwise off-duty Labor Day voting public that Hamas means to be consequential, and at inhumane degrees.
These murders make the world an uglier place for our candidates to parse.
Most assuredly, Hamas’ paymaster will exploit this.
On the eve of early voting, count on Iran to toy with, even successfully manipulate, a U.S. administration desperate for a well-timed hostage "win."
Call it foreign interference in our elections, Iran-style.
Hostage-taking typically leverages a civilian, as a way to hijack U.S. foreign policy.
Suddenly it has gone domestic as it did during the Carter administration, hijacking it, and the fate of our national leadership.
This is not to question the administration’s sincerity for the plight of our compatriots held abroad.
Yes, even politics has a soul — sometimes.
Nevertheless, Biden’s handling of hostage crises has been calibrated to garner political support, and especially now for Campaign '24.
Those tarmac reunions — most recently out of Russia — are politicians' shiny electoral currency. Otherwise, U.S. voters’ pocketbooks are increasingly and unhappily lighter.
For the dignity of hostages and the nation, the Harris campaign would be wise to save and not spend its hostage coin, even if it's the only thing in her political strategy purse.
Has the White House’s handling of hostage crises only served to beget more?
Gaza adversaries brutally murdered six hostages.
Their timing has forced 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to reckon it might show up for Israel while not displeasing the Hamas-sympathizing left-wing electorate soon deciding whether to vote at all.
After an embarrassing capitulation from his candidacy, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his top remaining priority: recover the Gaza hostages.
But here’s the deal: that legacy could find Biden spending political capital on Israel needed by Harris and Walz — his capitulators.
Joe is only human, and a politician near the end, too.
He focuses on one thing: "How will history judge me?"
So, where will he spend the political capital: on his hostage legacy or on Harris's left?
Answer: On his legacy.
Enter Iran, and Biden choosing between self and party is no longer necessary — if the administration were to play ball with Iran.
Trump-hating Iran could agree to engineer furtively a hostage recovery "win" for Washington, just to burnish Biden’s legacy and provide an actual "deliverable" to Harris-Walz stump speeches.
If successful, going into the next administration, Iran would have an easier time with Washington.
Would such hostage politics inspire or disgust the voter?
Abroad, Americans feel played by their adversaries based on recent hostage outcomes —such as terrorists sprung back to the Kremlin for athletes or writers just doing their jobs.
At home, Americans feel played by their government officials normalizing hostage-taking as merely another cost of doing business globally — instead of responding to it as the act of war which it is.
To wit: the plight of at least seven Americans still held in Gaza has been airbrushed from headlines, interminably so.
OK, yes, talks require discretion and therefore less sunshine.
But Americans cannot abide a compatriot commoditized and languishing as a field asset or as collateral lose in power politics — whether foreign or domestic.
Why? Because ours is a government of, by, and for the people, not despite them.
Whether recovery from Gaza happens eventually, a one-and-done repatriation is no longer enough for Americans. They are sickened by hostage barbarism which has become increasingly seasonal and fashionable in years past.
Each hostage case is its own war.
Each makes a nation of a person.
Each deserves an all-of-government, maximal response to recover and to deter.
So, an outcome to be successful must go beyond recovery and affirm that: (1) The U.S. drives the bus in hostage negotiations, it's not a passenger, (2) Captors suffer a huge net-negative, and (3) New consequences for hostage-taking will take it off the table completely.
Such resolve by the White House against hostage extortion would strengthen America’s foreign policy in a dangerous world.
That resolve has been missing over the past few years, and the United States as well as the global community, continue to pay a steep, painful price.
Hugh Dugan served as Acting Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (2019-20) during his career as a U.S. diplomat. He sits on the advisory boards of Hostage Aid Worldwide and the James L. Foley Legacy Foundation. Read Hugh Dugan's Reports — More Here.
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