Five of the hostages being held in Gaza are American citizens, not counting Itay Chen, who was murdered on October 7 and whose body was taken into Gaza by Hamas. While Bangkok managed to obtain the release of all four Thai hostages in November, the U.S. has so far had no such success. Worse, writes Nachama Soloveichik, the president has said nothing about their fate:
Joe Biden is more likely to call on Israel to accept an immediate ceasefire than to call on Hamas and Qatar to release our own citizens. We hear more about humanitarian aid for Gazans than about American citizens being killed and tortured in Gaza.
At a time when the president’s party insists we “Say his name!” or “Say her name!” Biden has not mentioned the dual citizens Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Sagui Dekel-Chen, or Keith Siegel. The president released a statement about Itay Chen on March 12, five months after the attack. This was only after his murder was announced, which supports Dara Horn’s poignant observation that dead Jews are more beloved than living ones.
The White House talks regularly about Evan Gershkovich (70-plus hits on the White House website), the Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter being held on false charges in Russia, as it did about Brittney Griner (more than 200 hits), a basketball player imprisoned by Russia until she was released in a controversial prisoner swap.
The six Jews whom Hamas kidnapped are as American as Gershkovich and Griner are, which raises the question: why does the White House ignore these Jewish U.S. citizens?
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentary.org/nachama-soloveichik/are-the-american-hostages-american-enough-for-biden/