American hostages held by Hamas in hell as Biden and Blinken play politics

What’s deadlier than Hamas terrorism? President Biden’s political pandering, which may doom the American hostages to be left to rot in underground tunnels. The hostages Hamas terrorists seized Oct. 7 still in captivity struggled through their 95th day Tuesday — as Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet.

The hostages’ whereabouts and their condition are unknown. It’s estimated 25 have died and 107 survive, including eight Americans. Time is not on the side of the survivors. Neither is politics. Some are frail, elderly men in need of daily medications. A nurse who was among the abducted Oct. 7 but released in a November hostage exchange predicts dire shortages now.

These captives, being held in underground tunnels, “had chronic illnesses,” she said. “There weren’t enough pills. There wasn’t enough food.” The parents of four teenage girls, all snatched from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, worry about what is being done to their daughters. “Imagine if it was your daughter, your little girl in their hands,” one mother said this week.

“We understood exactly what they did on Oct. 7,” she added. So “what have they been doing for 90 days?” Aviva Siegel, another hostage freed in November, told the Knesset, Israel’s legislative body, Tuesday that she saw young female captives being touched against their will and tortured. Blinken provided little comfort to the hostage families.

In a statement Tuesday evening, he started by expressing concern: “For them, every day, every hour, every minute that they’re separated from their loved ones is an eternity.” But he quickly shifted to emphasizing the suffering of the people of Gaza, including the “mother and father trying to find something to feed a hungry child,” and “the dire humanitarian situation” there.

Blinken had many more words of concern for Gaza residents than the hostages, including Americans. He also insisted, “Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow,” repeating what he had said Sunday in Qatar. Israel disagrees, insisting Palestinians will not be allowed to return to northern Gaza until the hostages are freed.

Jerusalem does not want to give up the leverage. The Biden administration is bending to pressure from leftist pro Palestinian Democrats, their media allies and world opinion. Get the most important developments in the region, globally and locally. Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

Thanks for signing up! Never miss a story. As Biden delivered a highly promoted campaign speech Monday at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, the moment was marred by pro Palestinian protesters. On Tuesday, The Washington Post editorial board commended Blinken for bearing a message it said must be heeded: “Alleviate Gaza’s misery and plan for its future.” No mention of hostages, except as an afterthought seven paragraphs down.

The hostages have become an inconvenient diplomatic stumbling block, nothing more. Prominent Democrats are not holding up signs saying “Bring Our Hostages Home.” On Jan. 5, families of American hostages released a TV ad to fill the void, as the clock ticks and the chances of survival diminish. The politically correct Red Cross is reportedly reluctant to help them.

A brother of one hostage said when his family asked for help getting medication to their loved one, a Red Cross worker rebuffed them, telling them to “care more about Gazans.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R Ark.) calls the president’s failure to bring home the American Eight “one small example of Biden’s weakness on the world stage.” Foreign policy expert Richard Goldberg has exhorted Biden in these pages to get tough with Qatar and threaten sanctions .

But these are exceptions. There has been little criticism. Biden pulled out the stops to get basketball star Brittney Griner sprung from Russia. And he released $6 billion in frozen assets to Iran for five prisoners, four of whom are Iranian American dual passport holders. But this time the administration sees public opinion split, according to a late December New York Times/Siena College poll.

How different it was in 1979, during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, when 52 Americans were taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran and endured 444 days of captivity. Americans tied yellow ribbons around trees, and Walter Cronkite announced on the nightly news how many days the hostages had been captive.

Those 52 hostages were household names, and Carter’s failure to bring them home contributed to his landslide loss in 1980. Sadly, today’s captives are not household names, at least not in America. That is why Biden can play politics, straddling Palestinian and Israeli interests. The lives of the hostages be damned.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York. Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey.