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Israeli captives' families slam Netanyahu, say White House acts better

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News Websites
29 Mar 2024 14:55
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Netanyahu tries to divert the conversation by justifying his distance from the US administration regarding the issue of the captives.

A demonstrator wearing a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a prisoner uniform during a protest in "Israel" on March 23, 2024. (AP)

Family members of American-Israeli captives said they get better treatment from the White House than from Netanyahu, Axios cited two sources as saying, after attending a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister.

The sources noted that a family member of one of the captives said the White House is always keeping them notified as opposed to Netanyahu who remains constantly mum while not acting the same.

Moreover, family members of captives claim they were being harassed online by Netanyahu's supporters and some were physically attacked while demonstrating.

Another family member urged Netanyahu to keep political differences with the US aside and not make the captives issue a matter to disagree on.

This comes as senior members of Netanyahu's cabinet such as Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said the captives are not "Israel's" top priority but destroying Hamas is.

Claiming that the "overwhelming majority" of Israelis support the war in Gaza, Netanyahu said the end goal is the "defeat of Hamas." After that, Netanyahu declared that the Palestinian Authority could not be allowed to govern Gaza, a matter he claimed Israelis agree with as well.

Netanyahu, in turn, gave them "a long rant" about why an Israeli prime minister should know how to say no to the US president, recalling that the US has long pressured "Israel" many times and ended up being wrong.

It has been constantly clear that a US president is enough to make an Israeli prime minister change course, such as a shake from Dwight Eisenhower ending the Suez War of 1956, one phone call from Ronald Reagan ending the Israeli bombardment of Beirut in 1982, and George HW Bush pushing a Likud prime minister to attend the Madrid "peace conference" by threatening to withhold $10 billion in loan guarantees.

Forced into silence

Even though Biden has repeatedly made his dissatisfaction clear, Netanyahu does not bat an eye, and this is making the hegemonic aura of the US look like nothing.

At a press conference at the IOF’s recruitment center in "Tel Hashomer", one of the family members said, "At the request of the state and the security forces, we’ve stayed silent until today. They scared us... Today we understand that as the number of days of silence grows, the number of boys who return home alive decreases.”

Just last week, almost 600 relatives of 81 Israeli captives have called upon US President Joe Biden to urge Netanyahu to negotiate a release deal.

The families conveyed their dissatisfaction with what they see as the Israeli government's failure to prioritize finalizing the agreement. This outreach to Biden, facilitated by "the Hostages and Missing Families Forum," represents the first significant effort by a large number of captives families to engage with the US President on this matter, as reported by The Times of Israel.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu rejected a comment made by Biden on how the management of the war in Gaza is "hurting Israel more than helping it".

In an interview for Politico, Netanyahu dissed the US President, saying, "If he [Biden] meant by that that I'm pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he's wrong on both counts."