THE FOUR ISRAELI HOSTAGES
JUST FREED BY THE IDF WERE HELD IN CIVILIAN HOMES AND GUARDED BY HAMAS TERRORISTS
AND PALESTINIAN (COLLABORATING PIGS) CIVILIANS
Americans are being
held hostage in Gaza. We cannot forget them.
Outside of synagogues and
the Jewish community, those taken by Hamas are largely out of mind.
By Ruth Marcus
Associate
editor|
June 8, 2024 at 12:36 p.m.
EDT
The hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza — the ones who we
hope are still alive, and the ones who have been murdered but whose bodies
remain — are not just an Israeli tragedy. They are an American tragedy, for the
simple but often forgotten reason that eight of them, five living and three
dead, are Americans.
We cannot forget them — not any more than we can
forget Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned in Vladimir
Putin’s Russia, or Austin Tice, held for
more than a decade in Syria. They are American citizens, to whom we owe a
fundamental duty of protection.
And yet, I am afraid, we do forget. In Israel, the hostages
are omnipresent, their faces on posters that plead, that demand, “Bring them home.” In
this country, the hostages, even the American hostages, are — outside of
synagogues and the Jewish community — largely out of mind.
I met last week — on Day 243 of their captivity — with the
families of three hostages. Edan Alexander, 20, from Tenafly, N.J., had
graduated from high school and volunteered to serve in the Israel Defense
Forces; he was guarding a kibbutz near Gaza when he was kidnapped. Omer Neutra,
22, a Long Island native and Knicks fan; a tank commander near Gaza, he was
taken captive when Hamas attacked.
Judy Weinstein, a
haiku-writing special needs teacher, mother of four and grandmother of seven,
killed alongside her husband, Gad Haggai, while they
were on an early-morning walk at Kibbutz Nir Oz. For weeks, the couple was
believed to have been taken alive, but their children, and Judy’s 95-year-old
mother, cannot sit shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning ritual, until their
bodies are returned.
I have met over the years with other families facing
terrible circumstances — mothers whose children were gunned down at Sandy Hook
Elementary; the wife of an American contractor jailed in Cuba — and I do not
mean to rank tragedies. But there was something particularly haunting in the
stricken faces of the hostage families: the not knowing, day after day, whether
their loved ones are still alive, or how long this hellish captivity will last.
Last week’s grim news that four
more hostages have been confirmed dead only adds to the unbearable anxiety;
Saturday’s report of four hostages rescued alive is
an occasion for rejoicing, but also evidence of the roller-coaster reality the
families endure, deals that are dangled yet slip away.
Of course, “hellish” applies to the continuing war in Gaza
itself. The death and suffering of innocent civilians are tragic. As President
Biden has said, “It’s time for
this war to end.” But it should be possible to keep both sets of horrors in
focus. The hostages — in particular the American hostages — have been notably
absent from the public consciousness in the United States.
From the accounts of the families, that is not true of the
Biden administration, which they describe as responsive and attentive from the
start. The day before our meeting, they spoke — for the ninth time since Oct. 7
— with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, even as he prepared to leave
with the president later that day for the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
They have spoken twice with Biden himself, once on a Zoom call and once in
person; they went to CIA headquarters to meet with Director William J. Burns.
Still, they insist, the truest measure of commitment is
concrete results. “That’s when we’ll know it’s enough: when our loved ones come
home,” said Andrea Weinstein, Judy’s sister.
They are less charitable toward Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. congressional leaders who have invited
Netanyahu to address a joint session.
“It’s totally inappropriate right now,” while the hostages remain, said Adi
Alexander, Edan’s father.
But, most of all, they have a message for their fellow
Americans: Do not forget us. “The narrative is not being told enough that this
was an attack … on the United States, not only on Israel — this was an attack
on citizens from 24 states,” said Orna Neutra, Omer’s mother. “And more
specifically, there were 44 Americans murdered on Oct. 7. … There were 12 taken
hostage and eight are still hostage. I think that gets lost.”
Why, I ask, do they think that is happening? “Personally,
we have suspicions, but I think part of it is that it’s perceived that those
Americans are dual citizens, and maybe more Israelis than Americans,” said
Ronen Neutra, Omer’s father. “So maybe … not equally important.”
Adi Alexander was, as he put it, “a little bit bold” in
quoting his congressman, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), to the effect that the
Americans killed and held hostage are “not being mentioned enough only because
of the fact that they are Jews.”
Whatever the reason, the consequences are chilling. “If the
United States allows the American hostages to rot in Gaza, my fear [is] — and
everybody’s fear should be — that this proves to be a successful strategy for
terrorism,” said Ronen Neutra. “And just like we saw 9/11 happening on our
soil, it’s going to be continuing.”