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Father of Israeli-American hostage says negotiating with Hamas is “dealing with Satan” but Netanyahu’s idea of total victory is “not realistic”
After the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages who had been held for almost a year by Hamas in Gaza, the father of an Israeli-American still in captivity reiterated calls for a conclusion to cease-fire negotiations that have stalled.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he believes Israel’s government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is navigating the ongoing war and the cease-fire talks with personal political interests in mind, rather than in pursuit of the remaining hostages’ freedom. His comments echoed the views of many Israelis who have criticized Netanyahu and his cabinet as the fighting has drawn on, although Dekel-Chen acknowledged the challenges embedded in negotiations and likened the task of settling terms with Hamas to “dealing with Satan.”
“Given that we’re dealing with Satan, I mean, that’s sort of the launching point for any discussion, Israelis at large, and myself included, have been extremely critical of the Israeli government for not negotiating in good faith now, for many, many months,” he said. “There is no explanation, a reasonable explanation why our government is refusing to deeply engage in these negotiations and complete them, when our entire senior military establishment and intelligence community has been saying publicly and openly for weeks and months that the time has come to end the fighting in Gaza, get our hostages home, as many alive as possible.”
The Israel Defense Forces said Early Sunday that the bodies of six being held hostage, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were found in Gaza. There are still eight American citizens believed to be hostages, including Dekel-Chen’s son, Sagui. Sagui is the father of three daughters, including one born while he has been in captivity.
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“The only thing that we know for sure about Sagui is that, as of late November, early December, we know that he was alive, wounded, but alive,” Dekel-Chen said Sunday.
When Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing over 1,000, they also kidnapped 250 hostages and took them into the Gaza Strip, where many have been held for the duration of the Israeli military siege that ensued. Around 100 of the hostages, mainly women and children, were returned as part of a weeklong cease-fire deal in November that also saw a pause in the bombardment and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Few hostages have been freed since then. Before the military announced the latest discovery of bodies, Israel said it believed 101 hostages remained in Gaza and about one-third were dead. The bodies of six other hostages were recovered by Israeli troops last month in southern Gaza. Eight have been rescued by Israeli forces, with the most recent found on Tuesday.
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Previous operations by the Israeli military to free hostages being held there have left scores of Palestinians dead. Hamas has said some hostages were killed in Israeli airstrikes and in failed rescue attempts, while the IDF said that their troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who had escaped captivity several months into the war. In the wake of the discovery of six bodies of those being held hostage by Hamas, a forum of hostage families called for a mass protest on Sunday — a “complete halt of the country” — to demand a cease-fire and the hostages’ release.
Despite their calls, Netanyahu has continued to forge ahead with the war effort, which he says aims to eliminate Hamas entirely.
“I think the vast majority of Israelis now have come to believe, by his actions, not his words, but by his actions, that he’s been driven primarily by a desire to retain power with a narrow, very radical messianic coalition in the Israeli government,” Dekel-Chen said Sunday about Netanyahu. “And he has made choices to pursue this fantasy of total victory over Hamas, a terrorist organization, and no doubt, but this idea of total victory is a messianic one from his coalition partners, and not realistic. And he’s preferred that, at least to date, over the well being of all the hostages.”
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, in which the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry has said more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of more Palestinian prisoners, some of whom are known militants.
Netanyahu on Saturday repeated claims that Hamas has stalled the cease-fire negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal” and vowing to hold Hamas accountable for killing the prisoners in “cold blood.”
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
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Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.