Wednesday, December 04, 2024
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
With the death of American hostage Omer Neutra now
confirmed, that leaves at most three American hostages in Gaza left alive. All
told, there are seven American hostages still held in Gaza; four of them,
including Neutra, are dead, their families denied even the right to bury their
dead and process their grief. Does it matter that come January 20th
a new, tough-talking sheriff in the form of President Elect Donald J. Trump is
coming to town?
It does and it doesn’t. The fact that someone in Israel’s
corner is moving into the Oval Office doesn’t change the fact that the American
hostages were betrayed by the most powerful nation on earth: America. It was
always a possibility because that’s the way it goes with American Jews.
American administrations come and go, some of them more and some of them less pro-Israel.
Some of them more and some of them less antisemitic.
Joe Biden, or whoever operates under his guise, doesn’t care about some Jews who left America voluntarily to live in a state that is nothing but a pain in the neck to Joe. A thorn in his side. (Those pesky Jews.)
President Trump will be far better, as was proven on Monday
afternoon following the news of IDF confirmation of Neutra’s death on October
7. Taking to Truth Social, President Trump issued a firm threat to Hamas:
Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East - But it’s all talk and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!
This is my President! There must be serious consequences for holding any hostage but America needs to exact severe consequences for kidnapping and murdering AMERICAN hostages. https://t.co/Qh8dq78mUM
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) December 2, 2024
Netanyahu offered Israel’s heartfelt thanks to President
Trump for this strong show of support. Trump’s stern warning was exactly
what was needed but had been sorely lacking every day for the past 424 days.
The Biden administration, however, was focused only on restraining Israel while
appeasing Iran. Biden and his handlers just didn’t care about a handful of
American Jews who had chosen to leave the Land of Opportunity for a country
that everyone hates.
I want to thank President Trump for his strong statement yesterday about the need for Hamas to release the hostages, the responsibility of Hamas, and this adds another force to our continued effort to release all the hostages.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 3, 2024
Thank you, President Trump. pic.twitter.com/sm4gvEDnwi
The betrayal by America of its hostages in Gaza is real, and
it should be food for thought for American Jews who have not yet been bit by
the Aliyah “bug.” It’s a fact: American Jews cannot count on their government
to protect them or help them in their time of need. The Biden Administration
proves the point. Some presidents may indeed help American Jews when they are
in trouble, but others won’t, and it won’t matter if said American Jews are
held in Gaza, slashed in the face on a street in Brooklyn, or harassed and
violently abused on an American university campus. Some administrations won’t
care enough to come down hard enough on the perpetrators to put the fear of God
into them.
Jews with American citizenship are, in the end, still less
worthy of protection than other Americans. Witness the Biden administration’s
lack of will to do much of anything at all for American citizens being held and
brutalized in Gaza because they are Jews. Trump coming into office will change
this dynamic for a while, and we can hope it will last a good long time, but
for the sake of self-preservation, American Jews would be well advised to
accept that America is not a place they can count on. When push comes to shove,
American Jews may or may not receive the help they deserve at the time it is
needed most.
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