An opinion article by John Ondrasik in The Wall Street Journal expressed his disbelief about the lack of attention the US pays to the plight of the American hostages in Gaza.
I’m old enough to remember the yellow ribbons. In 1979, Islamic radicals in Iran took 52 Americans hostage, holding them for 444 days. The hostages’ plight captured the nation’s attention. Some of them became household names. Across the country people prayed for their release.
The crisis was the lead story on the news every night. Tying a yellow ribbon on a tree or lamppost became a public expression of sorrow and concern. Even the White House Christmas tree had one.
What a contrast to our current hostage crisis. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas killed more than 30 American citizens and took as many as a dozen Americans hostage. Of those who were taken, at least two have been murdered. Five, we pray, are still alive. Do you know any of their names? Have you seen one yellow ribbon?
Or have they been forgotten? Have we lost our heart as a nation?
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
It’s simple- as Jews we are not valued as “real” Americans.
The situation with the hostages is that there is no question that they will be released in an eventual deal, after all the whole reason they were taken hostage was so Hamas can exchange them for their own people. So the entire issue of keeping on calling for the release of the hostages is not over their actual release but to do it as fast as possible, that their immediate release should take priority over everything else.
The hostages are not invisible, and this tragic problem is not because the USA has lost its heart as a nation.
This tragic problem is happening because the Mainstream New Media (MSM) refuses to report this tragic problem, because it does not help to promote their political agenda, which is inspired by the teachings of: Karl Marx, Stalin of Russia, Chairman Mao of China and Fidel Castro of Cuba.
The real answer is that these hostages are not really Americans. Technically they might have American citizenship but they moved to Israel and live there; they don’t participate in American life and they consider themselves Israeli. They keep their American passports/citizenship for the sake of convenience and benefits they can squeeze out of America but you can’t expect a regular American citizen to feel like they are American citizens. It’s just a way of trying to drag America into the war, to get more American support.
And how many of the Iranian hostages in 1979 had moved to Iran and lived there?