world news
‘What will your excuse be?’: Gaza hostage’s mother urges world to help
Rachel Goldberg, whose 23-year old son Hersh Polin Goldberg was taken hostage from the Nova music festival on October 7, invoked Cain and Abel as well as the Holocaust in a fiery speech at the Israel rally last Tuesday in Washington, DC, advocating for more activism on behalf of the hostages.
Goldberg, who emigrated from Virginia to Israel with her family when Hersh was eight, has been one of the most vocal family members of hostages to speak out on the international stage on behalf of the hostages’ plight. A couple of weeks after the massacre, she was the focus of a 35-minute podcast episode of The New York Times‘ “The Daily,” in which she recounted in detail the events of the day, what they knew about her son’s condition, and stories of unity and love among the family members of the kidnapped and dead—who through their shared circumstances have become a community of their own.
Posters of Hersh—larger and more distinct than the typical “kidnapped” signs featuring different hostages—have been displayed in many places throughout Israel and the world.
“Right now, how we are living is hard to describe to you,” Goldberg told the crowd of nearly 300,000 at the National Mall in Washington last Tuesday. “We hostage families have lived the last 39 days in slow motion torment. For 38 nights none of us have slept the real sleep of ‘the before.’ We all have third-degree burns on our souls. Our hearts are bruised and seeping with misery.“But the real souls suffering are those of the hostages,” she continued. “And they want to ask everyone in the world —all the screamers, the indifferent, the experts, the academics, the knowledgeable, the passives, the perfectly outraged, the righteous, the indignant, the haters, the leaders, the lovers—every single one of us: Why? Why is the world accepting that 240 human beings from almost 30 countries have been stolen and buried alive?
“These children of God ranged in age from nine months to 87 years. They are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindu. Why are they being left underground in the dirt?” she asked.
“Abigail Mor Idan is three years old; she watched her parents get murdered in front of her and was then kidnapped, and she would like me to ask the world, why are you letting her stay in the dark in her trauma, buried in the Earth’s crust?” she asked. “And Joshua Mollel, who is a Tanzanian African graduate student studying agribusiness, would like for me to ask you why somehow his life actually doesn’t matter. The world must prepare what we will say to them.”
Comparing the current situation to significant moments in history, Goldberg told of a Christian German who hid Jews during the Holocaust. When he was asked why he risked so much to do this, he answered: “at least I will know when I die and stand before God, He will not ask me what he asked Cain in the Bible: ‘Where were you when your brother’s blood cried out from the ground?’
“What the world needs to start thinking about today is, ‘what will your excuse be?'”
Danny Ayalon, former Deputy Foreign Minister and Israeli Ambassador to Washington, called the recent pro-Palestinian protests on campuses “an Islamist agenda that did not start today.”
Ayalon stated, “They have already influenced the public opinion in Europe in their favor and are trying to replicate the process in the US. From this perspective, they are succeeding, and they are, in fact, trying to influence not only Biden and the government but also members of Congress. Currently, Trump is leading in at least five states. Everything is subject to the American electoral system.”
Ayalon continued, “There are two axes through which Americans have been operating from the beginning of the war until today: the strategic axis, strong support for Israel, Israel’s strength is a clear American interest, and not to expand the war, and on the other hand, Biden’s political interest. He wants quiet; he wants stability. He would, of course, prefer to see a breakthrough. If he could run these elections on an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, that would be his dream. It is not beneficial for Biden to encourage escalation of the fighting.”
The American influence on the Israel-Hamas conflict
Ayalon also noted that “From all the conduct of Hamas, the IDF controls 90 percent of Gaza, and they are negotiating as if they hold the upper hand. They think they have the advantage and need to hold out as long as possible until the American elections.”
“The prominent guiding line is the evident interests of Biden and the Democrats. There are about five key states where this conflict will be decided by the electoral system. In some states, like Michigan, there is a relatively large Arab Muslim concentration, and a small percentage one way or the other can shift the entire state from one side to the other. That’s exactly Biden’s dilemma,” Ayalon concluded.
Edited by Shani Romano for 103FM radio.
Udi Segal and Tal Shalev spoke this Wednesday morning on 103FM radio with Omer Lubaton Granot, an Israeli master’s student at Columbia University, who shared his feelings after the widespread pro-Palestinian protests on campus as a reaction to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“I’m okay, but outside, it’s chaotic like you wouldn’t believe,” he shared, “There are dozens, if not over a hundred, detainees. We are following directions. The students from the protest yesterday broke into the building and shattered windows.”
Despite the chaos, Granot recognized some good things that came out of the campus protests.
“It gave the university a reason to investigate matters they’ve avoided for a long time. There is a lot of criticism about maintaining freedom of expression because it is sacred here, but the students went too far. They closed the campus today. No one could enter.”Lubaton Granot continued, “It’s been disrupting the daily routine here for two weeks already. There are people with covered faces walking around here, waving terrorist flags, shouting ‘Zionists out,’ preventing Israelis from freely walking on campus.”
“At a certain point, we waited for the police to come and take assertive action against them. The president asked the police to stay on campus until May 17. There is a need for constant police presence even though they are not a mob, this is not London, and there are not 100,000 protesters here,” he noted.
“I read in several places, but not sure if it’s confirmed, that among [the protesters] there was a relative of a man who was convicted of terrorism and unrelated to the university. Among the protesters are all sorts of people who are professional provocateurs. But in the end, they are coordinated, inside and out.”
“These are the same organizations where many of their leaders are simply on the outside,” he concluded and said, “There is a sense of personal threat, and we keep looking over our shoulders. We’re careful where we speak Hebrew on campus. We are remaining cautious. Since the beginning of this whole thing, it’s been really scary.
Three missiles were sighted approximately 15 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Mokha, British security firm Ambrey said on Friday, and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that one vessel was damaged.
“The Master has reported two attacks. The first attack, the vessel experienced an explosion in close proximity to the vessel, which was felt by the crew on board,” UKMTO said in an advisory note.
“Subsequently, the second attack on the vessel, consisted of what is believed to be two missiles, which resulted in damage to the vessel,” UKMTO added.
Russian-linked ship attacked
The tanker, which was not identified by name, was en route from Pimorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India, when it was attacked, Ambrey said in its advisory note.
“A Panama-flagged tanker, formerly UK-owned before its ownership changed in November 2023, was the closest vessel to the sighting,” Ambrey’s note said.
“At the time of writing, the vessel’s owner was Seychelles-registered and was engaged in Russia-linked trade,” Ambrey said of the tanker that was attacked.
The note said the vessel was transmitting an Automatic Identification System (AIS) signal.
Months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa, and have stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.
The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.
The Houthis since November have attacked more than four dozen ships, taking possession of one and sinking another. The barrage of assaults had eased in recent weeks amid US-led airstrikes and a sharp drop in commercial vessel voyages through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
-
Solar Energy3 years agoDLR testing the use of molten salt in a solar power plant in Portugal
-
Camera3 years agoCharles ‘Chuck’ Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and inventor of the PDF, dies at 81
-
TOP SCEINCE1 month agoStellar winds of three sun-like stars detected for the first time
-
TOP SCEINCE1 month ago
Brightest gamma-ray burst of all time came from the collapse of a massive star
-
world news1 month ago
Jewish diaspora expresses concern as Iranian drones launch toward Israel
-
TOP SCEINCE1 month ago
Inherited predisposition for higher muscle strength may protect against common morbidities
-
world news6 months ago
Gulf, France aid Gaza, Russia evacuates citizens
-
Camera3 years agoSony a7 IV sample gallery
