The shocking news about Omer Neutra, an American citizen who was believed to have been held alive in Gaza for the past 14 months, rocked the Jewish community that has been clinging to hope. Omer, who was from Plainview, Long Island, was apparently killed during the October 7 attack, and his body was taken by Hamas terrorists to Gaza and held there. As tragic as this news is, it also highlights the dichotomy of the reactions of our nation’s leaders.
Omer’s parents Orna and Ronen Neutra have been tirelessly traveling and speaking on behalf of their son for the past year. They spoke at the Republican National Convention and met with leaders at the Democratic National Convention. They pleaded with everyone from the State Department to the candidates to the President for help. “It was an unimaginable nightmare to be acting based on the hope that he was alive, despite having little information or signs of life since he was seen on video being taken on October 7,” they said in a statement.
The news of Omer’s death is a stark reminder of the ordeal that the hostages and their families have been going through since the war began. Between the war in Lebanon, the Presidential election, and the million other distractions that occupy our times and minds, it’s hard to believe that the world has essentially moved on while our Jewish brothers and sisters are being held captive, if they are even still alive. Kfir Bibas has spent more time in captivity than in freedom; think about that!
Keith Siegel, another hostage who was taken from his home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, just lost his elderly mother – yet he won’t be able to attend her funeral because he’s still being held captive. His daughter Elan posted on Facebook: “My father’s mother has passed away, and my father couldn’t say goodbye to her because he has been held captive by Hamas for over a year.” She added, “Dad won’t be able to stand with us tomorrow at the cemetery; he won’t be able to say goodbye to the woman who raised him and loved him all his life. A violent and murderous terror organization is dictating our lives from the Gaza Strip to the great United States, and the world remains silent.”
This is why the Jewish community resonated with enthusiasm at the post that President-elect Donald Trump made on Truth Social yesterday, after the news broke about Omer Neutra. “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,” he wrote. “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 demand echoes what he said during his acceptance speech at the RNC in July. “And to the entire world, I tell you this, we want our hostages back – and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.” The fact that he said this in July and there has been no movement on the issue since then is shameful, and that shame belongs on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their entire administration.
In a statement following the news of Omer’s death, Biden said, “To all the families of those still held hostage: We see you. We are with you, and I will not stop working to bring your loved ones back home where they belong.” This is the Biden problem in a nutshell. He ran in 2020 as “Captain Empathy,” which worked. He was seen as the man who cared, the man who felt the tragedy that you were feeling. Guess what? That’s not what we need in a leader. We need action. We need resolve. We don’t need meaningless platitudes and declarations of “non-stop work” that leads nowhere.
The empathy knife cuts both ways. Without a moral compass showing right and wrong, you can be empathetic to both sides of incredibly contentious issues. Biden probably thought it was a display of empathy and understanding this weekend when he left a bookstore carrying, in plain sight, a copy of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Columbia University professor emeritus and PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi.
Biden is as clumsy as he is stupid. This book argues that “The modern history of Palestine can best be understood in these terms: as a colonial war waged against the indigenous population, by a variety of parties, to force them to relinquish their homeland to another people against their will.” He spends his final remaining days in office spitting on the pro-Israel side by carrying this book, and he gets no credit for displaying it because Khalidi says he’s “four years too late” in getting it.
We also need to recognize that not everyone has a strong moral center on these issues, and there is far more ambivalence than anything else. This was seen in the last few days in New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office. Nallah Sutherland, a special event coordinator for the Mayor’s Office of Special Projects and Community Events, was filmed tearing down hostage posters in the Upper East Side, and then assaulting the cameraman. Originally, her City Hall bosses gave a slap on the wrist: sensitivity training and a note in her file.
After backlash from friend of Israel Congressman Ritchie Torres and New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, as well as calls from the Queens Jewish Link and other responses, Sutherland has now been suspended indefinitely without pay. (Notably, Chuck Schumer and Jerry Nadler, both Jewish New Yorkers who trade on their Jewish identity when convenient, did not make any statement). This is what can be accomplished when a strong community responds with a clear voice on issues that are important to them.
The tragedy of Omer Neutra is a wake-up call; this war is not over. The incoming Trump administration is the most pro-Israel presidency and cabinet in American history, and we must take full advantage of that. Demand accountability. Demand the destruction of Hamas. And above all else, demand that all hostages, alive or dead, be released immediately and without condition – or there will be all hell to pay.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
