An audible gasp echoed throughout a packed meeting room as Jewish Federation of North America (JFNA) General Assembly attendees listened to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid speak bluntly about the reality of hostage negotiations and the Israeli government.
“The Israeli government screwed up, nobody else,” Ravid said early on Monday morning. “It’s their responsibility, and they made a choice that for them, it is more important at the moment to continue a perpetual war in Gaza with a perpetual occupation.”
Ravid’s conversation followed a somber panel with hostage family members.
According to Ravid, all indications show that Israel is closer to having settlements built in Gaza than it is to bringing the hostages home.
“That’s the reality. I’m sorry,” Ravid said as his audience bristled. “I don’t want to depress anybody so early in the morning, but that’s the reality.”
There was no real pressure by the Biden administration on the Israeli government to secure a deal to win the war, Ravid added. However, he said that perhaps Trump’s administration will act differently.
“[Given] the current status quo and the inability of the Biden administration to break the status quo, a Trump administration could be an opportunity,” he said. “Because anything that will create some sort of a change in the current situation, in my analysis, could lead to a break.”
Orna Neutra, mother of 23-year-old New York-born hostage Omer Neutra, said there is an opportunity within the transition government for both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration to work together.
Ravid said he does not see the war ending or a hostage deal being reached before Trump comes into office on January 20.
The hostage families have been particularly despondent now that their “patron saint” Yoav Gallant was removed from his position as Defense Minister, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of 35-year-old hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, said during the panel.
Gallant seemed to “care a little” and gave the families more than just lip service, Dekel-Chen added.
Right now, he said, there is a difference between supporting and loving Israel and using your voice for that which is right, which may contradict to some degree with what the government is doing, Dekel-Chen explained.
“But if you have to prefer the good of the Jewish people over the good of this particular government, which will pass at some point, I implore you, choose the good of the Jewish people,” he said.
Dekel-Chen and Dalia Cusnir, sister-in-law of hostages Eitan Horn, 38, and Iair Horn, 46, criticized American Jewish organizations for failing to stand up to the Israeli government to ensure a hostage release.
Cusnir slammed organizations, including JFNA, as well as the Jewish Agency and JDC, for not speaking out forcefully enough.
“We need to have a joint call and urge the Israeli government and say that the Jewish community of North America needs a deal,” she said. “That’s the only way to bring them back, and that’s the only way that we can remain Jewish.”
Dekel-Chen put it more mildly and said that some Jewish organizations have been “resistant” to using their voices on behalf of the hostages.
Again, Ravid was more blunt
Ravid was more blunt, saying that many American Jewish organizations and those in the American pro-Israel community have abandoned the hostages.
“It’s sad, and I think history will judge a lot of those people,” he said. “I hope they can sleep at night.”
Heather Adelson, a campaign director from Federation CJA in Montreal, asked Ravid if the IDF could get back the hostages without a deal. Ravid promptly said, “No.”
Adelson later told The Jerusalem Post that she was shocked by Ravid’s response, and it was the first time she heard someone say military action would not save the hostages.
“The tone here took me by surprise because, as a Jewish person, I always have hope,” Adelson said of the subdued energy of the session. “And by the way, whatever they said, they could be right, but I know it could change tomorrow.”
David Lauer, a JFNA cabinet member from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was not at all surprised to hear the severity of Ravid’s words.
“I’ve been hearing that from my people on the ground,” Lauer told the Post. “So many American Jews are insulated from people on the ground and are more tuned in to governmental institutions and super PACs.”
Lauer said this has to be a galvanizing “aha moment” for a lot of people.