4 | JUNE 20 • 2024
J
N
opinion
It’s Our Responsibility
to Rescue the Hostages
P
resident Ronald
Reagan hosted Israeli
Prime Minister
Menachem Begin at a White
House state dinner on Sept.
9, 1981. The custom at state
dinners is for both the host
and the honored guest to offer
a toast.
In his toast,
Begin spoke
about Zionism’s
goal of taking
responsibility
for our own
security: “For
us, security is
not a word; it’s
not even a concept. It is life
itself. With our experience,
surrounded on the northern,
on the eastern front, still,
after the peace, after the
sacrifices we gave, we must be
so careful. We bear so grave
a responsibility, not only a
great one in our generation in
the wake of the Holocaust, to
make sure that our children
and our children’s children
will first of all live and then
live freely.”
The Israeli people have
suffered immense pain since
the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.
Besides the massive security
failure and the horrific loss of
life, the taking and refusal to
return the hostages has been
torturous.
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has
made rescuing the hostages
one of Israel’s main priorities.
He said, “We will continue
the war until we achieve all
of our war aims: To eliminate
Hamas, return all of our
hostages and our missing,
and ensure that there is no
element in Gaza that threatens
Israel.”
“I told the dear [hostages’]
families: ‘Returning our
hostages is a sacred and
supreme task and I am
obligated to it together with
my colleagues,” the prime
minister said. “As Maimonides
says: There is no greater
precept than redeeming
captives. We will not relent in
our efforts until we redeem
them all, until we return
them all, the boys and girls,
the mothers and fathers, the
young men and women, the
elderly men and women, the
male and female soldiers —
all of them.”
President Joe Biden has
stated: “All of these hostages
have been through a terrible
ordeal, and this is the
beginning of a long journey
of healing for them. Jill and
I are keeping them all in
our prayers today. From the
moment Hamas kidnapped
these people, I, along with my
team, have worked around the
clock to secure their release.”
Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
wrote about the need to
place the situation in Israel
and the hostages at the top
of our concerns: “If you
don’t have a close family
member in Israel, it is time
to start acting like you do. If
a member of your immediate
family — a parent, sibling,
spouse or child — were, God
forbid, in crisis, in the ICU
or missing, or fighting for
his or her life, could you be
distracted? Would you look
for or welcome distraction?
Would you not be drawn to
any news, any update on their
well-being? As one person
online posted, when asked by
a co-worker, ‘Do you have any
family in Israel,’ he responded,
‘Only a few million.’”
“Our genuine pain, anguish,
grief and worry should
not just be expressions of
sympathy and empathy
for what another is going
through,” Goldberg asserted.
“This is our pain, our anguish,
our fear, and our lives, our
priorities, our focus and our
time must reflect it.”
A WAR CRIME
Every day that Palestinians
hold the hostages is a war
Rabbi Uri
Pilichowski
JNS.org
PURELY COMMENTARY
continued on page 6
COURTESY OF THE HOSTAGE AND MISSING FAMILIES FORUM/JNS.ORG
Former captive Shlomi Ziv, rescued by an IDF raid into Gaza on June 8, is reunited with his sister, Revital
Nasi (left), and cousin Liat Ariel.