It is good that Israeli commandos, in a daring mission, were able to rescue four Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists.

It is only too bad they could not have rescued more, including the five Americans Hamas kidnapped and have held prisoner since Hamas’ Oct 7 terrorist invasion of Israel.

They are Keith Segal, 65, Edan Alexander, 20, Saqui Dekel-Chen, 35, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Omer Neutra, 22.

They have become the forgotten Americans.

They were taken hostage as the terrorists killed 33 other American, or Israeli American, men, women and children during the horrific slaughter by Hamas that took a total of 1200 lives. These Americans have become forgotten too.

And if the five are ever to be rescued—barring a cease fire– it will be through the efforts of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not President Joe Biden.

Not that the rescue of the four was an easy operation; far from it.

What began as a planned swift takeout of the four hostages in the packed streets of Nuseirat, a Hamas stronghold, turned into a serious gun battle before the hostages were rescued by helicopter.

Scores of Hamas fighters were killed along with civilian Gazans when the Israelis brought in airstrikes as a diversion. One Israeli commando was killed.

While it was reported that the U.S. provided the Israelis with intelligence, no Americans were involved in the raid.

But the Israeli rescue mission reminded some of Black Hawk Down, the 1993 battle of Mogadishu. One difference is that while the Israelis lost a couple of armored vehicles in the battle, it lost no helicopters.

Black Hawk Down was when U.S. Special Forces in a UN planned helicopter seizure of a pair of anti-democracy Somalia terrorists went awry. As in Nuseirat, an unanticipated battle broke out.

In the end the rebels, using RPG-7s, shot down three U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 U.S. soldiers and wounded 73 more.

If that was not bad enough, dead Americans were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu for the world to see. Somali rebel dead were estimated to be up to 700.

The battle led to the pullout of the UN from Somalia and later influenced then-President Bill Clinton’s decision not to intervene in the 1993 genocide in Rwanda.

It may be influencing Joe Biden today, which is possibly why the U.S. has made no military effort to rescue the five Americans, even though it has a major military presence in the region.

This presence includes the hastily assembled—and then relocated–$230 million artificial pier that was installed by U.S. forces off the coast of Gaza to supply food and humanitarian aid to the starving Palestinians.

Some one thousand U.S. troops are involved in the process as aid from Cypress has begun to get through. It is hoped that the aid goes to the hungry Gaza people and is not, which is more likely, being ripped off by Hamas.

The world knows what Netanyahu will do to rescue Israelis held hostage. But if you are an American, or a loved one of an Americans being held hostage, you must be wondering what your government is doing for you.

Talk about getting released after a cease fire is fine, but so far it is only talk. There is no cease fire.

That is because to Hamas, it is all talk. Hamas does not need a cease fire. It only needs to survive to fight another day.

If Netanyahu can send a strike force to rescue Israelis held hostage, why can’t Joe Biden do the same to rescue the Americans?

If not by force, perhaps Biden can buy their freedom the way he paid ransom money to buy the freedom of five Americans held hostage by Iran in 2023.

He bought their freedom by releasing $6 billion in frozen assets to Iran.

The mullahs in Iran used the money to fund their terrorist proxies like Hamas, which, ironically, now holds the five Americans hostage.

Maybe Joe can come up with another $6 billion.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference at the Sheba Tel HaShomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, after Israel carried out its largest hostage rescue operation since the war with Hamas began, taking four to safety out of central Gaza as heavy fighting continued there. (Jack Guez/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Andrey Kozlov, 27, left, and Almog Meir Jan, 21, kidnapped from Israel in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023 react after arriving by helicopter to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, Saturday, June 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum, File)