Hamas kidnapped 12 Americans on Oct. 7—Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel are still being held—and abducted the bodies of three Americans who were killed on that terrible day: Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judith Weinstein Haggai. Four others were released.
We remember their names, but it is less certain our leaders in Washington do.
To the chagrin of the haunted families of the hostages—many of whom personally met with President Joe Biden to plead for his help in securing their loved ones' release—last month's presidential debate left them out in the cold. It failed to offer any substantial ideas about freeing the hostages, an insult to the hostages and their families. This lack of focus on such a critical issue has left the families feeling overlooked and disrespected in their time of desperate need.
It belies what America stands for. Steven Sotloff, whom I knew and mentored, whose last stories were written exclusively for our news agency, The Media Line, and James Foley, who wrote for Agence France-Presse and the GlobalPost, were two journalists whom America did not save. They should be eternally remembered. They gave their lives informing the world of the coming Islamic State caliphate. Foley was the first American beheaded by the Islamic State on Aug. 19, 2014; Sotloff suffered the same fate two weeks later, on Sept. 2.
The brutal televised beheadings taught us nothing. The United States did not do enough then to save them; it needs to do more now to save the Americans as well as all the approximately 120 hostages still being held against their will in Gaza.
Ironically, these same journalists who reported on ISIS until 2014 sounded another alarm that Americans should be listening to now. The issue of Middle Eastern terrorists taking advantage of America's porous borders, which has been a key topic of disagreement between Biden and former President Donald Trump, was barely mentioned in the debate. Since Oct. 7, the FBI has expressed concern because Border Patrol agents frequently catch individuals linked to terrorist organizations, who try to infiltrate the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last month, hundreds of immigrants from Central Asia crossed the border into the United States with the help of an Islamic State-linked network of smugglers. Eight of these migrants, from Tajikistan, were arrested for having potential ties with the Islamic State group.
Another topic of concern that barely got a mention on the debate stage was the antisemitism raging across college campuses, particularly where pro-Palestinian students and faculty members have protested their universities' ties to Israel. One would think that when mentioning the Palestinian cause, either the former or current president would have seen fit to also refer to blatant attacks on Jewish Americans.
Trump, instead of treating the audience to a rather tacky moment when he called Biden "a very bad Palestinian," might have taken the high road and shouted out, as he does so well, a condemnation of the Palestinian-initiated slurs and violence at the campus encampments.
It was a missed opportunity to show the command and leadership this country needs for the sake of all students and families of all ethnicities. But the subject was avoided, possibly because of a fear that the candidate who raises the issue might thereby lose support, particularly among younger voters.
In all, the families of the hostages were left to feel entrapped and neglected, struggling for visibility and desperate for a meaningful response from their leaders. This oversight only deepened their frustration and helplessness, as they yearn for concrete actions and assurances.
One can wonder about the candidates' choice of issues and responses. But the spectacle of two presidents putting aside the plight of the hostages still held by Hamas while focusing on each other's golfing skills was an embarrassment to America.
No good can come out of neglecting the hostages' plight when the world is watching. One hopes that in the next debate, the candidates find time to address the critical, life-and-death issue of the release of hostages held by Hamas, or—even better—that the president steps up his administration's efforts to ensure their immediate freedom, rather than engaging with Trump in exchanges fit for clubhouse toffs.
After all, events in the Middle East may well play a vital role in determining the next president of the United States.
Felice Friedson is president and CEO of The Media Line news agency and founder of the Press and Policy Student Program, the Mideast Press Club, and the Women's Empowerment Program. She can be reached at ffriedson@themedialine.org.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
