00:00I'm here today because I had a family member who was both killed on October 7th and then
00:07her father taken hostage in Gaza and held for many months, tortured, abused, and then
00:14ultimately killed, murdered, and we brought him back in a coffin.
00:20I don't want that for any of the families of those that are still alive.
00:24And for us, it's really important that we do everything we can to try to bring all the
00:2850 hostages home.
00:30I'm going to say that I think that the government got it wrong with its foreign policy, that it's
00:33time for it to force correct and refocus on the hostages, and also to understand that by
00:38bringing the hostages, freeing the hostages, and helping to bring that about will also help
00:46us to unlock new pathways for solving the crisis in the Middle East.
00:50It takes the wind out of the sails of the war and puts us on a new direction.
00:55They recognized, they threatened to recognize the state of Palestine if there was no ceasefire
01:01with Hamas, but that's a perverse incentive because Hamas, why would Hamas want to have
01:06a ceasefire if it can get by default recognition of a Palestinian state, which it could claim,
01:13credibly claim credit for.
01:16So it completely scuppered the negotiations.
01:19We saw that happen with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirming that as soon as
01:24Macron announced the recognition of Palestine, and then Canada and UK following, it immediately
01:30took the wind out of the sails of negotiations.
01:31We were very close to a ceasefire deal with hostage release.
01:35And that scuppered the entire process.
01:38The Hamas negotiators broke contact and now issued more demands.
01:44So they know that they are sitting pretty, and they can ride it out, and that's a result
01:49of our government's ineptitude.
Comments