On Wednesday April 24, 2024, more than 200 days after October 7, 2023, Hamas released a video of one of the hostages: 23-year old American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

It was the first sign of life from Hersh since the horrific video of October 7, when we had to watch him climb into the back of a pickup truck, covered in blood and missing his left hand.

The video released last Wednesday shows Hersh looking pale, thin and frightened. He blames the Israeli government for not securing a deal with Hamas, for letting many of the hostages die and for making them suffer. He tells Netanyahu to go home and hand over the keys of the government. He shows his amputated left hand, which was blown off by a hand grenade on October 7.

It is hard to put to words what I felt when I saw this video. I cannot imagine how his parents, Rachel and John Goldberg-Polin, are feeling. Relief, because he is alive. Pain, because he is very clearly suffering. Hope, because he might come home. And fear, because he might not.

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Rachel, who has been fighting tirelessly for the release of her son and the other hostages, told the Israeli media:

“We were extremely overwhelmed. We were both crying. And just seeing him, I think I kept saying, poor boy, poor boy, poor boy.”

This is the video released by Hamas. The only full screening I could find was on the Times of India YouTube channel:

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It is important to realize that Hersh is not saying his own thoughts, he is reading off a rehearsed script that Hamas had given him. It is easy to see in his eyes that he is terrified.

The reason there is no hostage deal is because Hamas refuses to accept any offer. They have turned down four offers up until now, the last time was on April 14. It is not because of Netanyahu that there is no hostage deal.

The main problem is that Hamas demands an immediate, permanent end to the war. The Israeli government is not willing to leave Gaza without conquering the last remaining Hamas stronghold: Rafah. This is where the hostages are thought to be held.

Hamas also demands the release of all Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons. Many of these are dangerous criminals and terrorists.

I don’t know what the right thing to do is. On the one hand, we all desperately want to see the hostages return home to their families. But to give up on eradicating Hamas? This sounds terrifying. They will just resume their reign of terror in Gaza. The Gazan people are traumatized and hate Israel a thousand times more than before. The entire world hates Israel a thousand times more than before. They will attack again one day, and again, and again. We must make sure a massacre like October 7 can NEVER happen again.

So, I don’t have the answers. I don’t make the decisions. I wait and hope, as I did before. And I pray that Hersh and the others will make it home.

#bring_hersh_home

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