Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no answer for Kibbutz Nir-Oz resident and father of an American-Israeli hostage Jonathan Dekel-Chen on why he hasn’t visited or met with members of the community from where more than 45 residents were killed and at least 70 were taken hostage on October 7.
In his hotel Monday night, Netanyahu hosted a meeting in which Dekel-Chen told The Jerusalem Post the American-Israeli hostages’ families were misled about what was going to happen.
Dekel-Chen, father of 35-year-old hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, thought the meeting would just be an “intimate discussion with hostage families.”
Instead, he said to the Post shortly after the meeting ended, there were relatives of fallen soldiers who were not hostages, as well as soldiers who fought on October 7 and thereafter.
There were also a large number of people in Netanyahu’s own entourage and embassy staffers, which Dekel-Chen said the families were told was not going to happen.
The families were also told there would be no cameras, yet Netanyahu’s team was in the meeting with cameras.
The prime minister’s wife Sara Netanyahu was also in the meeting.
Throwing doubt in negotiation process
“He repeated his known positions about the negotiations, about the necessity of continuing to pressure Hamas militarily. He expressed his commitment to getting all of the hostages home,” Dekel-Chen told the Post with audible frustration and disappointment. “He was describing in great detail how difficult this process is for him.”
Dekel-Chen also asked Netanyahu why he’s still throwing doubt in delaying completion of the negotiation process when the entire Israeli military establishment and intelligence community, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have clearly said all of the conditions are set and there’s no reason to delay.
“He did not address this question, of course. He did not answer it,” Dekel-Chen said. “What it was, in essence, was a campaign speech. Which was, at least from my perspective, very inappropriate given the audience.”
This was not an open and honest discussion between a prime minister and hostage families, he said, and was “yet another in a series of staged moments of political theater” that Netanyahu and his wife have staged for months with groupings of hostage families.
Earlier in the day, the American families met with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan for the 12th time since October 7, which Dekel-Chen described as “polar opposite” from the gathering with Netanyahu.
Over the course of the last nine months, the American families have met with top Biden administration officials including CIA Director Bill Burns, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Before Netanyahu addresses Congress on Wednesday, the American-Israeli families will meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.
“We have had open, frank, really empathetic conversations, and productive ones, with all of these officials in the administration,” Dekel-Chen said.
In Monday afternoon’s meeting with Sullivan and Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Dekel-Chen said the administration echoed Israeli officials in saying there is no reason not to move forward with the deal.
“There really isn’t any daylight there. The only issue that seems to be at hand is the political will of our prime minister to move forward and to risk his own government,” Dekel-Chen said. “There is no other major issue remaining.”