Trump has also made threats both during the campaign and while in office, some of them relating to Israel and the hostages. 1. Is he acting on those as well? 2. And if not, what will be the ramifications?
His first threat, as it relates to Israel, came well before he was inaugurated, when he said that if the hostages were not released by the time he came into office on January 20 there would be “hell to pay.”
January 20 came, and – while not all the hostages were released – a ceasefire was declared that led to the release of some of them, a ceasefire attributed in no small part to the pressure he placed on all the parties: Hamas, via Egypt and Qatar, and Israel.
Trump could explain that the gates of hell did not open wide even though the hostages were not all released by saying that some hostages were released, which was his intent all along, and that this was a better outcome than what had transpired over the last year under the Biden administration.
