Parents of American Hostage in Gaza Say Netanyahu Favors Power Over Human Life

The parents of an Israeli-American being held hostage by terrorist group Hamas in Gaza said Tuesday that they believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prioritizing his own political ambitions over securing a deal to release hostages like their son.

Ronen and Orna Neutra, whose 22-year-old son, Omer, was taken captive last October, spoke with Anderson Cooper on CNN, where they first reacted to the deaths of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five others.

“We’re completely devastated, Anderson. This shouldn‘t have happened,” Oma said. “Hersh was supposed to come out in the first phase of a deal that‘s been on the table for a long time now, and it‘s just completely outrageous and devastating that this is what happened.”

“Hersh managed to survive the eleven most terrible months with the monsters of Hamas in Gaza, and yet was murdered and executed a couple of days ago in the most brutal way,” Ronen added. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

When Cooper asked if Goldberg-Polins’ death could mark a turning point in hostage negotiations, both were skeptical, citing Netanyahu.

“It’s not a clear path. We’re seeing still many challenges in the region,” Oma said. “We‘re seeing a prime minister that is not willing to make the compromises needed to reach a deal to bring our son and the other hostages back.”

Thousands of anti-Netanyahu protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv for the third straight night on Tuesday, calling for a hostage release deal.

Cooper followed up, asking if the pair “have faith” in Netanyahu and whether “he has the hostages front and center in his priorities.”

Both said they didn’t.

“Unfortunately not,” Ronen said. “We met him in the White House with President Biden. We looked him in the eyes ,and unfortunately our feeling is that he has his own political future ahead of him rather than the safety of our son.”

“It‘s not just our son,” his wife added. “I don‘t believe that he has the interest of the Israeli people as his top priority. Anyone that‘s looking at this can see that Israelis need the hostages to come home for them to be able to recover from this, to move forward. But the first step would be to bring the hostages back. To make the families whole, to bring back some sense of security, right? This was a breach between the Israeli government and its people.”