JERUSALEM, Israel – Israelis are marking the 700th day since the Hamas kidnapping and massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals on October 7th, 2023, also the 700th day of captivity for the hostages.
The Israel Defense Forces announced they now control 40 percent of Gaza City, even before the main thrust of the offensive begins.
It also comes just days before the U.N. convenes a pivotal meeting to try to advance a Palestinian state.
We spoke with Israeli Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and asked him about a number of the terror group’s delays in freeing the hostages and whether the Gaza City military campaign is the best course for Israel.
Concerning the Gaza City offensive, Huckabee told us, “It’s what the president (Trump) has been pushing for and saying. It’s what Israel has been pushing for, but I don’t know that they have much of a choice, because Hamas will walk up to the table and pretend they’re going to make some type of deal that would let the hostages go, and then they always walk away, and then they add new conditions.”
He added, “I think these people have to understand the reason this has gone on like it has, with as much suffering as it has, it’s not because of Israel. It’s because of Hamas.”
The ambassador suggested that the Europeans and others trying to impose a Palestinian state are playing into the hands of Hamas.
Huckabee stated, “I think, without a doubt, when these European countries started saying they were going to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, Hamas walked away from all the negotiations that had been going on. They want their Palestinian state. Now, they might get one for free.”
The ambassador insists that the Europeans’ U.N. action is a violation of the 1993 Oslo Accords. “So, that’s a problem,” he said. “They just can’t do that. And they also – they haven’t defined where the boundaries are. Who would lead it? how would it all work out? So it is an exercise in futility.”
Huckabee hopes that Americans, and especially Christians, will come to understand that the war with Hamas is much bigger than a fight for territory in the Middle East.
“This is a battle of the ages,” he told us. “This is not horizontal. It’s not left, right, liberal, conservative. This is a vertical battle. It’s heaven versus hell. It’s good versus evil. People need to see it in that context, or they’ll miss the whole thing.
He continued, “Where does that come from? It doesn’t come just from socio-political or economic pressures. It comes from an evil that originates from the most demonic forces that have ever been unleashed on this earth. And that’s why I feel like, particularly Christian believers in the United States and across the world, need to recognize it.”
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