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Families of hostages, Jewish leaders plead to put politics aside and bring home Hamas captives
(New York Jewish Week) – In front of a crowd of 200 outside the United Nations, Navé Strauss described his cousin, Hagar — who loves traveling, trying new food, listening to Radiohead, and has three children, one of whom celebrated their 10th birthday on Oct. 6.
“Have I humanized it enough?” Strauss said. “Do you know this person? I’m sure you know this person. But she’s somewhere in Gaza and I don’t know where and I don’t know when I’m going to see her next.”
Like hundreds of other Israelis, Hagar and her three children are being held by Hamas, which took the captives when it invaded Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 and wounding thousands. At the gathering on Wednesday morning, relatives of the hostages pressed for their release and criticized the international response to the abductions.
Strauss, other family members of hostages and New York City politicians and Jewish leaders addressed the crowd, vowing to keep the hostages’ plight on the public agenda — and to prevent it from being subsumed by debate over the war between Hamas and Israel.
“I’m not interested in politics, I’m not interested in ‘othering,’” Strauss said. “There are children in danger.”
In all, Israel says it has notified the families of 199 hostages that their loved ones are in Gaza. Hamas says other terror groups operating in the territory are holding about 50 additional people. Hamas released footage of one of the captives on Monday, a video widely understood as a psychological ploy.
“We feel this viscerally in New York. We feel as if these children are our children,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who is Jewish. “Because of their pain we will not be silent. We are demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages.”
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, flanked by Israelis whose family members are held by Hamas, at a rally demanding their release, in New York City, October 18, 2023. (Luke Tress)
Flanked by students from the Ramaz School, an Orthodox day school in Manhattan, holding fliers with images of the captives, Levine said in Hebrew, “We’re not forgetting and we’re not giving up. We will do all we can to return them home in peace. We promise.”
Also at the rally at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza were New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish; the chair of the City Council’s Jewish Caucus, Eric Dinowitz; other New York City lawmakers; and representatives of the New York Board of Rabbis, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the UJA-Federation of New York and the American Jewish Committee’s New York chapter; and Shany Granot-Lubaton, a prominent Israeli activist.
Several speakers lamented that the hostage crisis hasn’t drawn harsher condemnations, decrying what they said was a double standard against Israel.
“Kidnapping is very straightforward. Somehow that message gets lost,” Dinowitz said. “In every generation we face strife and challenges, and in every generation there are people who question our simple right to exist.”
Levine compared the situation to the global outcry when Boko Haram terrorists abducted 276 girls in Nigeria, sparking a massive international response.
“Where is that level of outrage now?” he said. “Where are the government denunciations? Where is the clear messaging from the United Nations? Where’s the outrage on social media?”
Israel supporters hold images of Hamas hostages at a rally demanding their release, in New York City, October 18, 2023. (Luke Tress)
Ahead of the protest, the Ramaz students led the crowd in a rendition of traditional Jewish songs calling for God to help those in distress and protect children. Attendees stood in a circle, some holding images of the hostages and Israeli flags. The conference wrapped up with the audience singing Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah.”
In the area around the plaza, fliers with photos of the captives and information about them were taped to streetlights and parking meters, part of an international campaign to raise awareness of the crisis.
Speakers largely did not address how Israel should conduct its war on Hamas or what the outcome of the fighting should be, though Strauss did suggest that arms should be laid down so that the hostage crisis could be addressed.
“There are actual human beings who are in danger right now,” Strauss told the crowd. “Drop the weapons, stop the fighting, prioritize the hostages.”
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The post Families of hostages, Jewish leaders plead to put politics aside and bring home Hamas captives appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.