Prolonging the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas has the danger of leading to a situation in which the terrorist organization is not eliminated as a military threat, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Monday.
Stressing that "this is what we were always worried about ... the end of the cease-fire," Holt warned "Wake Up America" that there are still more than 150 hostages remaining, and Hamas is "going to use this as a lever, because this is Hamas' only path of survival. They are going to take five days and try to turn it into five weeks and then try to mute this ... Israeli position of finishing off Hamas once and for all."
Holt explained that the problem is if the Israeli army "doesn't get back on this campaign and finish off Hamas, this is the new precedent that will happen — butchery plus taking hostages equals a formula Hamas can live with, as well as its associates in Iran."
Holt said that since the start of the war on Oct. 7, U.S. forces have been attacked at least 90 times since and "we've done pinpricks," pointing out that shipping has been affected, and "we have done hardly anything to defend it."
He said a major reason for this is that the Biden administration has a strategy that avoids holding Iran accountable in any way, shape or form and pressures Israel "to enter into cease-fire deals that prolong the life of Hamas, maybe indefinitely."
Holt bemoaned that the U.S. is "muted, our hands are tied, we don't have a strategy coming out of D.C. because everything revolves around looking the other way" from Tehran, "which this administration and the Obama administration before it has been in bed with."
He added that it is "time to be honest with these things, because the more and more we get away from the truth, the more danger we are all in, especially here at home, with an unprotected border."
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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