US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. YouTube/Screenshot)
Incoming National Security Adviser Mike Walz aims to levy severe consequences against terrorists who kidnap U.S. citizens.
By World Israel News Staff
President-elect Donald Trump’s designated national security adviser promised on Sunday that under the incoming administration, terror groups kidnapping Americans would face severe consequences.
“You take an American, you illegally detain them; if you’re a nation-state or if you’re a terrorist, you hold them hostage—there is going to be all hell to pay!” Rep. Mike Waltz, who is expected to be confirmed as Trump’s national security adviser, told conservative commentator Ben Shapiro in a podcast interview published on Sunday.
“There are going to be nothing but consequences for you financially and maybe even a bullet in your damn forehead if you take an American, period!”
Waltz noted that the Americans still in Hamas captivity have been held hostage for longer than those held during the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis.
“That’s totally unacceptable, and I think writ large, there has never been enough consequences,” Waltz said. “That’s what we need to be talking about with these people.”
Waltz added that the punishment for taking American hostages must be severe in order to deter future kidnappings by terror groups.
“The next time you think about it… a lot of these groups are going to say, ‘Woah, it’s just not worth it under Donald Trump,’” he said.
“If the bad guys are incentivized to take more [hostages] because they keep getting more, then they’re going to keep doing it. If the bad guys feel nothing but cost and pain for taking our people, they’re going to stop doing it.”
There are seven American citizens currently held by Hamas in Gaza, with four of them confirmed to have been murdered on October 7th.
Itai Chen and Omer Neutra, two U.S.-born IDF soldiers, were killed battling Hamas terrorists during the onslaught.
Judith Weinstein Haggai and Gadi Haggai, a married couple with Israeli and American citizenships, were brutally murdered while on a morning walk in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The bodies of Chen, Neutra, Weinstein Haggai, and Haggai were kidnapped by the terror group and taken to Gaza.
IDF soldier Edan Alexander, who was born in New Jersey; North Carolina-born retiree Keith Siegel; and Sagui Dekel-Chen, the son of American immigrants, are all believed to be alive while still in Hamas captivity.
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