American hostages’ families: Any speech Netanyahu gives to Congress will be a failure without deal

The families of the eight American hostages remaining captive in Gaza made clear on Monday morning their expectations for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s Wednesday speech before Congress: Any address he gives that isn’t the announcement of a deal will be a total failure.

This is the message the families will share across the two days – leading up to Netanyahu’s highly anticipated remarks – that will be packed with press conferences, meetings with lawmakers and the Pentagon, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Netanyahu himself.

The families addressed reporters Monday morning shortly after the IDF announced the deaths of hostages Alex Dancyg and Yagev Buchshtab, who were likely mistakenly killed by Israeli forces during battles in Khan Yunis several months ago.

Dancyg, 76, was kidnapped on October 7 from Nir-Oz, and Buchshtab, 35, was taken from Nirim.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a dual American-Israeli citizen, whose 35-year-old son Sagui Dekel-Chen was kidnapped from Nir-Oz, told reporters that Dancyg is the seventh hostage taken from Nir-Oz who was alive on October 8 and was subsequently killed in the course of the months since then.

“This is the clearest possible sign that there is simply no more time,” Dekel-Chen said. “The fantasy that there’s some better deal coming, or that it may be possible to wait out this or that administration, is no more no less than a death sentence for the hostages who still might be alive, and forget recovering the bodies of those who have already been murdered.”

Cease all stalling of the deal

He said the families expect their prime minister to cease all stalling and torpedoing hopes for a negotiated return of hostages and ceasefire in Gaza, and stop the suffering of the people of Gaza.

“We expect to hear this on Wednesday and in one or two meetings that we’ll be having with him separately, to declare that Israel is going to sign this imperfect agreement with Satan, meaning Hamas,” Dekel-Chen added. “But it is a national necessity, and anything less than that would be a total failure of his leadership.”

Liz Hirsh Naftali, great aunt of four-year-old Abigail Mor Edan who was kidnapped on October 7 and released in the first ceasefire deal after 51 days in captivity, said the group of mostly dual American-Israeli citizens hold a unique position among the constellation of hostages families, giving them a different kind of power.

Their American passport requires the United States government to do everything it can to release the hostages, she said. And this week, she added, the American-Israeli families can meet Netanyahu in their country, in English, to have these conversations.

“Anything short of Prime Minister Netanyahu coming to America to address our Congress, to address our public, shy of a deal that he is about to sign, which he has committed to already, is a failure,” Hirsh Naftali said, echoing Dekel-Chen. “That is the one thing the American public is waiting to hear, and that is the one thing that our legislators are waiting to hear.”

It’s been months since the American-Israeli families have met with their prime minister.

When Ronen and Orna Netura, parents of 22-year-old hostage Omer Neutra, met with Netanyahu in January after repeatedly pressing his staff for a meeting, Orna said the prime minister couldn’t give any assurances when, or if, their son would be released.

Instead, in their meeting, Orna said Netanyahu was very focused on military achievements and his commitment to the Jewish state.

Orna said she and Ronen have been torn, both as parents of a hostage and as Israelis, but that seven months after their meeting with Netanyahu, enough is enough. The military and government have had ample time, Orna said, and she’s lost any patience or understanding for them.

Dekel-Chen, who until October 7 lived on Kibbutz Nir-Oz where 51 people were killed and another 79 were taken hostage, said that Netanyahu has not spoken with the kibbutz members directly, despite their requests to see him.

“So think about that,” Dekel-Chen said. “A head of state who has simply ignored an entire community that was wiped off the face of the earth by an attack from a terrorist organization that he had sworn to destroy many times over during his many, many years of premiership.”

However, Dekel-Chen said, Netanyahu had chosen to come to the US and accept his invitation to address a joint session of Congress, which had to mean something other than just political theater in Israel.

Before their meeting on Monday night with Netanyahu, the families will meet with Sullivan for the 10th time in almost as many months.

Ruby Chen, father of 19-year-old Itay Chen, confirmed by Israeli officials in March as killed on October 7, said he expects Sullivan to give the families an update on the deal parameters, as well as an understanding of what’s missing to get to the finish line.

Chen said it’s premature for Netanyahu to come to the US now, especially given Sunday’s announcement that he’s sending an Israeli negotiating team to hostage talks on Thursday, which is why he shouldn’t have boarded the plane to DC.

This is the contradiction that the families are here to call out, demanding change, Dekel-Chen said – because he’s here in the United States. It’s sacred ground, Dekel-Chen said, it’s not a place for political theater.

“He has many things on his plate,” she added. “If he’s not coming here to close a deal, then there are enough things that he needs to focus on, including getting the deal done.” 

Netanyahu’s address comes at a pivotal moment in Washington following Biden’s decision on Sunday to withdraw from the presidential race. 

Rachel Goldberg, the mother of 23-year-old hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said Biden has been incredibly supportive, helpful, and transparent as can be, adding she’s not concerned about Biden’s decision impacting hostage negotiations.

“I think that [Biden] is so committed to getting these people home, specifically the American eight, but all of the hostages, that if anything, this allows him to focus more laser concentration on that goal that he is so passionate about,” Goldberg said. 

She added Vice President Kamala Harris has met with the American-Israeli families twice since October 7 and has been “absolutely aligned with President Biden, extremely supportive, extremely open, very patient and very generous with her time.”

We don’t see them wavering in their commitment to see this to its fruition and get our loved ones back, Goldberg said. 

Last week at the Republican National Convention, the Neutras revealed that former President Donald Trump called them in the early weeks following October 7. 

Ronen Neutra described the call as “short” and that Trump was “very sympathetic.”

The Post has reached out to Harris’ office as well as a spokesperson for the Trump campaign to see if they are planning to meet with the hostages’ families this week and if they will be meeting with Netanyahu. 

JPost