Biden must use force, not just diplomacy, if he wants to rescue our hostages in Gaza

Israel’s killings of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh inside Iran and of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon have raised the risk of full-scale war in the Middle East and complicated the negotiations between Israel and Hamas for peace in Gaza. 

While Secretary of State Antony Blinken commented on July 19 that talks with Hamas to release U.S. hostages are “inside the 10-yard line,” the prospects for their quick release suddenly seem less likely. It’s time for the U.S. to stop waiting on a diplomatic outcome to get Americans home and look to Israel for what to do.

Even as it has engaged in diplomacy to get its citizens back, Israel has never shied away from launching raids to rescue its people. 

On June 8, Israeli troops entered the Nuseirat area of Gaza to free four hostages. This high-risk operation exacted a heavy human toll of about 100 people dead, according to the Israelis (no distinction between combatants and civilians was made). But Israel achieved its goal: getting its people back.

There are many potential reasons why the Biden administration hasn’t launched similar operations to rescue the five American hostages who remain alive in Hamas’s hands. Perhaps it doesn’t know where the hostages are or doesn’t want to risk them being executed during a raid. Perhaps these are justifiable reasons for standing down. Either way, we have seen no American forces on the ground.  

If the Biden administration is holding back on a raid because it doesn’t want American special forces personnel engaging in gun battles in Gaza, or because it wants to avoid losing the support of pro-Palestinian American voters in the event of civilian casualties, then it is putting politics ahead of American lives.

American servicemembers are more than equipped to pull off a rescue. In the wake of the failed mission to rescue Americans held hostage by Iran in 1980, U.S. Special Operations teams were rebuilt to achieve what President Jimmy Carter’s aborted raid could not. 

Today, U.S. special operators have a strong track record of successfully infiltrating hostile environments to rescue hostages. Those averse to an American military presence inside Gaza must remember that a single, surgical raid is not the same thing as a protracted U.S. military presence.

The Biden administration has reverted to a philosophy of hostage rescues that sees a military operation as a last resort. This approach cedes the upper hand to hostage takers, who feel emboldened to capture Americans with little fear of paying for it with their lives. 

In the Trump administration, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (and later National Security Advisor) Robert O’Brien regularly adopted the opposite approach, prioritizing military options to free hostages instead of just diplomatic ones. 

The embrace of the military option under President Trump helped bring unjustly detained Americans home without concessions — recall, for example, the U.S. Navy SEAL rescue of American Philip Walton from captivity in Nigeria in 2020. Successful operations using Emirati and French forces on the ground that freed U.S. citizens were also authorized. 

But, as O’Brien knew, the military option’s greatest value is in its power to deter terrorists and criminals from taking hostages in the first place. Had Yahya Sinwar and the rest of Hamas’s leadership known that America would have rained down fire on them had even one single American been killed or taken captive, perhaps the Oct. 7 assault would not have happened at all.

Last week, the Biden administration got a look at risk-tolerant leadership when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress. 

Netanyahu himself has engaged in talks with Hamas to reach a deal that would entail freeing the captured Americans. At the same time, he has withstood enormous pressure from Israeli and American politicians to stop the armed Israeli excision of Hamas in Gaza. Netanyahu’s critics fail to appreciate that Israel’s ongoing military campaign is helping force Hamas toward a deal that includes the return of American hostages.

In that light, the snub of Netanyahu’s speech by Vice President Kamala Harris and a significant number of Democrats looks even more disrespectful. By the grace of God, the five Americans currently languishing in Hamas dungeons will be home soon. But the Biden administration — beholden to a posture of weakness — will deserve little credit for their return.  

Adam Boehler is the former CEO of the International Development Finance Corporation. He was part of the team that negotiated the Abraham Accords and negotiated with the Taliban several times.