Last week, the White House told reporters of its plans to secure the release of five American citizens being held hostage by Tehran, in exchange for the release of $6 billion in funds that have been frozen due to sanctions. Shay Khatiri comments:

[T]he deal rewards the Islamic Republic for its malign behavior. Over the past few decades, the regime has frequently taken innocent foreigners as hostages, only to release them in exchange for cash, sanctions relief, or the release of Iranian criminals held in those countries. . . . The Islamic Republic’s hostage diplomacy has been so successful that other American adversaries are copying it. Russia, North Korea, and China have all kidnapped foreign citizens to get concessions from liberal democracies in recent years. This agreement will further encourage the tactic.

[Worse still, the deal] is a hint that the Biden administration has given up on stopping the Islamic Republic’s nuclear-weapons program. From $17 billion to less than $10 billion, the deal cuts the amount of Iranian money frozen by the U.S. [almost] in half, and will further establish that Biden has no stomach for a confrontation with the Islamic Republic—strengthening Tehran’s hand. Meanwhile, the administration continues to handcuff Israel to stop it from attacking Iran.

The five Americans to be released have names and faces, and we will be reminded of their stories in the days and weeks to come. But the many who will lose their freedoms and lives as a result of the regime’s hostage-taking and terrorism, [which] this deal encourages, will also be victims, and they’re likely to remain nameless and faceless. They deserve a voice—and, at minimum, an American administration that doesn’t actively incentivize the Islamic Republic’s evildoing—too.

Tamir Hayman analyzes the latest reports about an offer by Hamas to release three female soldiers in exchange for 150 captured terrorists, of whom 90 have received life sentences; then, if that exchange happens successfully, a second stage of the deal will begin.

If this does happen, Israel will release all the serious prisoners who had been sentenced to life and who are associated with Hamas, which will leave Israel without any bargaining chips for the second stage. In practice, Israel will release everyone who is important to Hamas without getting back all the hostages. In this situation, it’s evident that Israel will approach the second stage of the negotiations in the most unfavorable way possible. Hamas will achieve all its demands in the first stage, except for a commitment from Israel to end the war completely.

How does this relate to the fighting in Rafah? Hayman explains:

In the absence of an agreement or compromise by Hamas, it is detrimental for Israel to continue the static situation we were in. It is positive that new energy has entered the campaign. . . . The [capture of the] border of the Gaza Strip and the Rafah crossing are extremely important achievements, while the ongoing dismantling of the battalions is of secondary importance.

That being said, Hayman is critical of the approach to negotiations taken so far:

Gradual hostage trades don’t work. We must adopt a different concept of a single deal in which Israel offers a complete cessation of the war in exchange for all the hostages.