American, Israeli hostages dead

Yesterday, elements of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered six bodies in a tunnel in the Gazan city of Rafah. The bodies were of six Jews whom elements of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Arabic Harakah al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah, abbreviated HAMAS) took captive on October 7, 2023 – the first day of the Fourth Arab-Israeli War. This find apparently has some civilians in Israel quaking in fear and calling for the removal of their leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But this find has direct relevance for Americans – because one of those dead hostages was an American. It puts the Election of 2024 in a new light – and also has embarrassed certain Jew haters among conservatives.

Finding of the American and other bodies

The IDF official X account carried the announcement of the find yesterday:

The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino were found and recovered yesterday.

They were all taken hostage on October 7 and were murdered by the Hamas terrorist organization while in captivity in Gaza.

The IDF and ISA send their heartfelt condolences to the families. Israeli security forces are operating with all means to bring home all the hostages as fast as possible.

Sgan-aluf-mishne (Lt. Col.) Nadav Shoshani then narrated this announcement, which the IDF posted four hours later:

Hamas still holds 101 hostages in Gaza, including women, children, and the elderly. We will not stop until every hostage is brought home.

Labor union leaders called a general strike on this news. But this Iraqi X user showed a different attitude:

Israel 🇮🇱 just found out few mur*dered bodies of the hostages, this proves that #Hamas ter*rorists doesn’t want to release the hostages & doesn’t want to negotiate peace or ceasefire, it’s time for Israel 🇮🇱 to defeat & dismantle these ter*rorists, & to bring back the remaining of the hostages home safe, so please stand with me to pray for the hostages & their families, may their memory be a blessing.

I am Iraqi 🇮🇶 & proudly stand with Israel 🇮🇱.

Am Yisrael Chai.

More to the point, American citizens are remembering that Hersh Goldberg-Polin was indeed an American. Furthermore, they know whom to blame.

I am heartbroken by this devastating news. The death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin is a tragedy that lies squarely on the Biden-Harris administration. Hamas shot him in the back of his head. He was an American, and my heart goes out to his family!

His life mattered. Rest in Peace, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The news that Hamas murdered him in captivity is beyond devastating. Hell is not enough. His body, an American citizen, has now been recovered in Gaza.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) released a statement of condolence.

After 330 agonizing days since the brutal terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,200 dead and hundreds more held hostage, Johnathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg woke up to unimaginable news that no parent should ever receive. Suzanne and I are angered and heartbroken by the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a senseless murder at the hands of terrorists. Today, Virginians, Americans, and the world join the Goldberg-Polin family and the Keneseth Beth Israel Synagogue in prayer.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), Speaker of the House, also released a condolence:

But in reaction, several American users reminded him sharply of American funding for HAMAS – funding approved on Johnson’s watch.

HAMAS blew this American’s arm off while capturing him. Earlier this year they made him pose for a video and recite their propaganda. An influencer calling herself Persian Jewess shared the video and a terse statement:

Hamas murdered Hersh Goldberg-Polin in captivity.

Hamas murdered Hersh Goldberg-Polin in captivity.

Hamas murdered Hersh Goldberg-Polin in captivity.

Hell is not enough.

Adding irony to tragedy, Goldberg-Polin’s Parents, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, spoke at the Democratic National Convention. There they credited President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris with “working tirelessly for a hostage and cease-fire deal.”

No more cease-fire talk

Few indeed are talking about cease-fire today, apart from the usual suspects. And some of those have fallen silent. Lauren Witzke, for example, shortly after the war began, posted several remarks of dubious validity. She regarded any Americans taken hostage on October 7 as strictly Israeli, to whom America owed nothing. She even accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of issuing a stand-down order – to let the attack happen. But at time of writing, she has not left one single post since the IDF announced recovering the bodies. Not, that is, about the finding, or the American citizenship of Goldberg-Polin.

Sadly, accusations that the IDF killed the hostages, by letting the initial attack occur or even in their operations in Rafah, pop up as occasional replies.

But other users called for revenge. This example was typical:

The cackling free Palestine crowd just got a lot quieter, or maybe my concern for them has pretty much diminished. They need to lay that place to waste a nice, beautiful parking lot, clean people free, quiet with bird singing, maybe a couple trees.

Bill Ackman, who last year led a “donors’ revolt” against American colleges that allow rampant antisemitism on campus, said this:

Consider that Hamas chose to execute an American hostage with a bullet to the back of his head during the last two or three days (along with five other hostages) whose parents just spoke at the DNC less than two weeks ago, while hostage negotiations were underway.

Consider that the U.S. strategy over the last 330 days has been to pressure Israel to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, including through the withholding of weapons from Israel, and by periodically leaking our failure to support our ally to the media in the midst of hostage negotiations.

Consider what pressure if any the U.S. has brought to bear on Hamas and our friends in the region who harbor Hamas’ leadership?

Why? Why has our leadership adopted this failed strategy?

Because President Biden (who has been on vacation for 16 days) and Kamala Harris, who also just skipped a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery to honor 13 fallen soldiers from the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, along with their advisers in the DNC, believe they will lose important votes in certain key swing states and from Hamas supporters on campuses.

It has been proven time and time again that the only thing that terrorists understand is brute force. Rather than pressure Israel, the United States should have put more pressure on our other allies in the region to help, and done everything we can to help Israel defeat Hamas and recover the hostages, but unfortunately this was not good politics for Biden/Harris and some of their supporters.

By being weak and lacking resolve, we failed our captured, now dead citizens, and the other hostages and their families while emboldening terrorists around the world.

The result:

It has become much less safe to be an American since October 7th because of our failed leadership.

It has become much less safe to be a member of the free world since October 7th because of our failed leadership.

We are in desperate need for a change in leadership so our enemies once again fear the United States and think twice before they act against us and/or our allies.

The time has come.

A cardiologist, in reply, offered this:

Experts estimate that the hostages were murdered 48 to 72 hours ago, likely on Thursday evening or night.

The hostages were found emaciated, showing signs of the hardships endured during captivity. Gunshot wounds were identified on their heads and other parts of their bodies. Additionally, older injuries that had healed, such as shrapnel wounds likely sustained on October 7, were also found under the skin.

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, said this:

Perfectly said. further debate unnecessary!

Laura Loomer was not idle, either. Early this afternoon she posted a scathing reply to Vice-President Harris:

Why are you trying to use their grief as a way to campaign? Kamala Harris, you could have saved their son and chose not to. Instead you embraced HAMAS. You are disgraceful to share the contents of your conversation with them as a way to score political points after you killed their son.

Nor did she spare Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.).

Today, while Tim Walz was visiting the Minnesota State Fair for campaign photo ops, a woman asked him “what is your reaction to the 6 hostages being found dead in Gaza”? Walz looked at the woman, and then turned around with a frozen shake in his hand and said “thanks everybody” and walked away! One of those dead hostages whose body was just found in Gaza was Hersh Polin, an AMERICAN CITIZEN! Tim Walz is disgraceful and unfit to be Vice President. The Democrat Party is the party of Jew haters and Jihadi lovers.

Analysis

Violent death is always tragic – and at the hands of an enemy who practices atrocity, it is infuriating. And as many have observed, Hersh Goldberg-Polin would not have died under a President Trump. Neither would any of the other five. Weak leaders and their apologists love to deny that untoward events have anything to do with them. That might be true of natural disasters – if one discounts the Genesis 12:3 Curse and other explicit warnings not to offend the God Who created the heavens and the earth. It is absolutely not true of war, or of atrocities like the killing of those hostages, or their initial capture.

The silence of certain “conservative” influencers about the finding of those bodies is especially telling. Certain among them – those that have the most followers – haven’t said a word since the finding. Tim Walz fled rather than answer a question about the finding, and Kamala Harris exploited the partisan loyalties of Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents. But no one seriously expects better of them. CNAV expects better of those calling themselves conservative. That goes double of one who ran for the United States Senate, as Lauren Witzke did.

That aside, Bill Ackman and Laura Loomer are correct. The United States does need new leadership, as soon as is Constitutionally possible. Finding a dead American who gave no offense to anyone, adds yet another reason.