The urgency of the matter did not seem to resonate with him (Netanyahu) –– Daniel Neutra, brother of hostage Omer Neutra
By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – As I watched them testify before a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives last Tuesday (April 25), it struck me that relatives of Israeli hostages had flown 5,400 miles to lobby our leaders to lobby their leaders.
It was the first bizarre takeaway surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington depicting how twisted and alarming Israel’s plight has become.
The next day, Netanyahu performed a public service as he addressed a joint session of Congress by reminding the world of the savagery that marked Oct. 7, but it is disturbing for what he did not say about Israel’s response that has killed thousands of Gazans.
Talk about savagery: Anti-Israel “useful idiots” on Tuesday terrorized a congressman’s staff in the Cannon Rotunda, and on Wednesday – across the street from Capitol Hill – they spray-painted Israel-bashing messages and pulled down American flags before hoisting up Palestinian flags in their place.
The Israeli family group that faced the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed up the most significant perils facing Israel today. Predictably, it was depressing to hear the relatives describe their day-by-day frustration as they hope for the return of their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, and dear friends. “It’s too much for me to handle,” said Aviva Siegel, who was released months ago with her husband Keith still in detention.
After massive protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against the Israeli government, the hostage relatives of Americans complained to the House members that – even after meeting with Netanyahu the night before – that he remains unresponsive to their demand that he swiftly act to retrieve the hostages.
They begged Congress to pressure their leader – repeat, their leader – to agree to a pact for release of the hostages. “Israel needs you to end this madness,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of hostage Sagui Deket-Chen, 35 and a professor at Hebrew University.
Daniel Neutra, brother of hostage Omer Neutra, told the panel that several relatives met with Netanyahu the night before, according to The Times of Israel. “I have to say that the urgency of the matter did not seem to resonate with him,” he said.
He said the prime minister did not respond when asked why he was waiting until later in the week to send negotiators to resume talks instead of dispatching them sooner, The Times of Israel reported.
They are lobbying leaders of a foreign country to influence action that they believe their own leaders should be doing? It as if disgruntled Americans traveled to Ottawa to plead with the Canadian Parliament to pressure our Congress to act on gun safety, climate change and any range of domestic legislation that we deem important.
A hostage deal does invite debate. Any reasonable person would urge release of the hostages, but at what price? What should Israel give up to retrieve them? Hamas is already demanding too much, such as keeping them in power and emptying Israel’s jails of terrorists.
Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, framed the most consequential concern in reverse when she said that Israel must destroy Hamas and “find a path to bring hostages home.”
Can Israel eliminate Hamas, which controls Gaza, and at the same time retrieve the hostages? I find that hard to believe. Further, I am not sure if they can accomplish either of these goals. Hamas is still entrenched in its tunnels and it appears to be a disadvantage for them to release all the hostages.
Despite Netanyahu’s failings, his appearance before Congress last Wednesday turned out to be advantageous for Israel and American Jews: He spent the first half of his hour-long speech cataloguing the work of terrorists on Oct. 7. He recounted how terrorists burned babies, cut off the heads of men, and killed children in front of their parents and murdered parents in front of their children.
Bibi, his nickname, praised four Israeli soldiers standing in the balcony who rushed to rescue victims of the attack, and shouted out to a hostage whom soldiers evacuated from Gaza a short time ago.
Maybe these reminders resonated with those who viewed Netanyahu’s talk. It had to be said.
What he neglected to do was explain why it was necessary to go as far as he did in killing Palestinians. He tried to justify their deaths, but it was not convincing. True, civilian deaths and property damage could not be avoided, but the scale of Israel’s response is hard for many people to grasp.
In a series of disgraceful incidents, so-called friends of the Palestinians atrociously if predictably upended Washington last Tuesday and Wednesday. A group of protesters swarmed the office of Rep. Dan Kildee in the Cannon Rotunda, “violently beating on all three of our congressional (locked) office doors,” according to an aide to the Michigan Democrat, Politico reported.
Capitol police said in a statement that they were “arresting a group that is illegally demonstrating inside the Cannon Rotunda. Demonstrations are not allowed inside the Congressional Buildings. We told the people, who legally entered, to stop or they would be arrested. They did not stop, so we are arresting them,” as quoted in Politico.
The next day, anti-Israel demonstrators attempted to block Netanyahu’s route to the Capitol, but police removed them from the street. Police also prevented them from getting near the building, and police said they used pepper spray after some protesters became “violent” and “failed to obey” orders to move back from the police line, the Associated Press reported.
AP also recounted that four demonstrators were handcuffed and removed outside Union Station, which is across the street from Capitol Hill. Their friends shouted, “Let them go!” and one person grabbed at a police officer’s riot shield, then raising his fists in a fighting stance.
Fire burned what seemed to be a papier-mache likeness of the prime minister. They also removed American flags and hoisted Palestinian ones to replace them.
And, they spray-painted graffiti on a monument to Christopher Columbus with messages calling for Israel to “free Gaza” and warning that “Hamas is coming.”
All this is their idea of exercising their First Amendment rights, even for those who are not American citizens.
July 25 and 26 are two days that we likely all wish never materialized as they did. We cannot afford to forget them.
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist