Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz predicted during an interview on Sunday that Hamas will surrender their American hostages before President-elect Donald Trump’s January inauguration as a gesture to the incoming 47th president, much like Iran did in 1980 with President Ronald Reagan entering office.
But Dershowitz warned that partial releases won’t end the Israeli-Hamas war by itself.
“They will be the Americans,” Dershowitz told Newsmax’s “Sunday Report.” “That will be a kind of a homage to Trump, saying, ‘All right, at least we’re releasing the Americans.'”
Dershowitz emphasized that all hostages must be freed and conditions created where “this could not ever recur.”
He urged a tough stance toward Iran, suggesting Trump demand: “Look, you have 60 days to dismantle your nuclear program, and if you don’t do it, we’ll do it.”
“Threats from Donald Trump work,” Dershowitz claimed, and said that both Hamas and Iran fear the incoming president.
He also criticized Democratic protesters and their outspoken support for Hamas on college campuses.
“These young men and women have blood on their hands, and we ought to make it clear that they are doing evil things by one-sided protests against Israel, without ever condemning Hamas,” he said.
“Have you ever heard of a protester on any American campus calling for a two-state solution? You have not. That’s because they don’t want Israel to survive as the nation-state of the Jewish people. They want one state, a Palestinian state,” he added.
Dershowitz insisted “Diplomacy alone will never work,” and pointed out that his own mentee, former President Barack Obama, was one of the “worst foreign policy presidency in modern American history. He created many of the circumstances which led to Oct. 7, which led to the hostages.”
For diplomacy to work, “there must be force, tragic as it is, and as terrible as it is to use force.”
“Force is the engine of diplomacy and President Trump knows that as a negotiator, probably better than any prior American president,” he said.