Rachel Goldberg-Polin breathed slightly this week upon hearing of the rescue operation of the four hostages, which provided a momentary lift, in an incredibly protracted process of waiting for her own 23-year-old son Hersh to be freed from Gaza.
“Every single hostage family breathed a huge sigh of relief,” she said during a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
Goldberg-Polin spoke two days after the operation that brought home Noa Argamani (26,) Almog Meir Jan (22,) Andrey Kozlov (27,) and Shlomi Ziv (41,) leaving 120 more hostages in Gaza, including her son.
'Every minute is agony'
“It’s like an inhale, to really just bring much-needed oxygen to our bodies. It was tremendously thrilling news, and especially because at this point, so many of the families know each other through different ways,” she said.
Kozlov’s mother went with her to Rome to visit the Pope, Goldberg-Polin said, and her husband, Jon Polin, was in several meetings with the Ziv family.
“So when someone is released, it’s completely joyful,” she said, noting that the last such operation was in February, and “we’ve been sitting without any air” since then.
“As a hostage family, every minute is agony for us,” she said, “so what is a day for you is like a month for us; it’s like dog years.”
The operation came as the families of the hostages waited to see if the US would be successful in finalizing a hostage deal, unveiled by President Joe Biden on May 31.
As the days passed without a response from Hamas, NBC reported that Washington would consider a separate deal with the terror group for eight of the hostages, who like her son, have dual Israeli-American citizenship.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken downplayed that possibly on Monday, stating that the focus was on the larger deal.
Goldberg-Polin said she first heard of the possibility of a side agreement between the US and Hamas when a friend sent her a link to the story.
“So I read it, along with everyone else,” she said.
Hersh’s mother said she takes stories like this with a grain of salt, but that should this one be correct, she understands that it would be a step of last resort.
Blinken is expected to meet with the families of the eight American hostages on Tuesday, she said.
“At this point on day 248,” Goldberg-Polin said, the leaders of the 24 nations whose citizens are in Gaza, “should be trying to figure out how we get these people out.
“I would like to see all remaining 120 hostages released in a big comprehensive deal,” she stressed, noting that it would be tragic if it all happened through individual deals.
At the same time, she said, “As the mother of someone who’s been there for 248 days, I would like to have my son home.”
Goldberg-Polin said that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan holds a conversation with the American families about every other week, including last Tuesday. The possibility of a US-Hamas deal was not mentioned in that conversation, she said.
“He was updating us on the larger deal,” as US special envoy Brett McGurk and CIA Director William Burns were heading to the Middle East, she said.
“We were hopeful that serious talks were underway because when they send their top people to the region, we know that hopefully there’s optimism for movement,” Goldberg-Polin said.
It’s been ten long days since then, she said, and much longer since her son was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on October 7.
Goldberg-Polin urged Israeli leaders to close the deal.
“Don’t do the political thing: Do the right thing, do the ethical thing, and the moral thing,” she said. “Do the thing that makes you look in the mirror and be proud of who you are. Do the thing that makes you know that 100 years from now, history will be talking about you doing the right thing. Don’t do the easy thing. Do the right thing.”
There should be an agreement that puts an end to all the suffering,” she said.
“At this point, there are millions of people suffering in this region, and I just pray, night and day, that we can have an end to the suffering for everybody.”