They are NOT a happy group…..
Their Prime Minister comnes across strong in the media….
But his family is NOT captive….
And YES this IS a weakness that Hamas IS exploding….
Some in Israel are looking to the American President Biden to get theirs back ….Not Netanyahu …
Zin is one of thousands of Israelis who are currently living in a black hole, waiting for someone to tell them where their kidnapped loved ones are, if they are dead or alive, and what is being done to bring them home. She and the rest of the hostages’ families have received no answers from Israeli authorities. Like the residents of the border towns on Oct. 7, they are fending largely for themselves. Appeals to U.S. and European officials to get involved, a petition to the U.N. for the immediate release of hostages in Gaza, desperate calls and emails to humanitarian organizations in Gaza—all have been spearheaded by the grassroots efforts of the families themselves. They have been forced to suffer the additional torment of feeling abandoned by their own government.
Now, as Israel retaliates for the most painful attack in its history, those families find themselves at the center of a national dilemma. Israelis want their leaders to eliminate Hamas, which has until now been allowed to thrive in their backyard. Yet, as Israel pounds Hamas with airstrikes, many fear that Israeli hostages could be killed in the crossfire. Hamas has long used Palestinian civilians as human shields. Now, Israelis fear their own people are being used as human shields in a new type of psychological warfare.
On Oct. 9, Israel appointed a retired brigadier general, Gal Hirsch, to serve as the government’s coordinator for kidnapped and missing Israelis, a position that had been vacant for a year. On Monday, his officed announced that notifications had been sent to the families of 199 Israelis held captive by Hamas. But there has been no public statement by any Israeli government official regarding any explicit effort to free the hostages, most of whom are women, children, and older people.
Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor Hirsch’s office responded to requests from Foreign Policy for comment. Zin has contacted Hirsch numerous times and received no response. Dozens of other families of hostages say they, too, have heard nothing from his office….
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In contrast to the callousness displayed by Netanyahu and his government, Chen and the other American Israelis have found comfort from U.S. leaders. “We have faith in the Biden administration and the fact that this is their No. 1 priority,” Chen told me after the families’ video call with the president, which was scheduled to last 15 minutes. “After 15 minutes, one of his aides wanted to move him on to the next item on his calendar. The president looked at his aide and said, ‘Last time I checked, I’m president of the United States, and I will decide when this meeting is over.’ He wanted to hear from each and every one of us. He shared with us his personal grief and how he coped with it. He stayed on the phone with us for 90 minutes. He said, ‘There’s nothing more important for me than that you know we are on top of this.’”
Abbey Onn, an American citizen with five family members missing in Gaza, including three teenagers, said of the hourslong emotional meeting with Blinken: “He told us, as the stepson of a Holocaust survivor and the grandson of someone who fled pogroms in Ukraine, it was both a professional and personal mission to help our families. He listened to every single person around the table, never cut anyone off, and looked at all our photos and videos.”
“If only the Israeli families had this type of embrace and sympathy,” said Chen, adding that it was “mind-boggling” how foreign officials at the highest level are meeting with them yet Israeli officials are nowhere to be found…..