Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton told Newsmax Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump is taking the "right approach" in warning Hamas that "all hell will break out in the Middle East" if the remaining hostages are not released by the time he takes office on Jan. 20.
"What Hamas did was outrageous in more respects than we have time to discuss, but holding American hostages and getting them released is a principal duty for the president," Bolton told "American Agenda." "I think the Israelis have shown that the way to get hostages out is not to try and deal with Hamas, but to beat them on the battlefield, which is what they've been doing."
Multiple intelligence and security sources within the U.S. and Israeli governments told Newsmax that authorities believe that only around 20 of the original 251 hostages taken alive by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, are still alive.
Bolton said "it is very sad to hear this report about the estimate," adding that he had "heard that in Israel going back several months."
"What it indicates, among other things, is Hamas has been committing fraud, another kind of fraud, for months now in negotiating for the release of potentially 100 hostages, when they knew full well that the great majority, sadly, had already died," he said. "And yet they held that out and they used it to divide Israel [with] demonstrations to get release of hostages who had already passed away.
"So it's another example of Hamas brutality, and I think why ultimately Israel is correct — that the only real answer here is the defeat and elimination of Hamas politically and militarily."
Commenting on White House efforts to free the hostages, the former ambassador said the Biden administration "has made a small business out of trading prisoners or hostages to get Americans released."
"I understand the humanitarian impulse there, but it's very badly misguided, because once you start doing deals with terrorists that involve swapping prisoners, in the case of U.S. citizens, you're just putting a price on their passport," Bolton said. "You're making more American citizens vulnerable down the line.
"I thought it was a mistake not to at least offer Israel American help in getting all the hostages released, American or Israeli, very early after Oct. 7 — our special forces, the FBI hostage rescue team, a lot of capabilities that we have. The Biden administration didn't do that.
"The opportunity was missed. Sadly, many of those hostages now appear to have died. We missed the opportunity."
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