Parents of missing US citizen: If there ever was a moment of good vs evil, this is it

By Lazar Berman

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10 October 2023, 8:22 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Families of US citizens thought kidnapped by Hamas to Gaza hold a press conference in Tel Aviv, October 10, 2023. (Video screenshot)

Some more quotes from the press conference today of families of kidnapped and missing American citizens:

“The United States always wants to be and must be on the side of good,” said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagi was last seen fighting Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

The Hebrew University historian says: “Hamas is evil.”

“If there ever was a moment of good against evil in the harshest terms, this is it.”

The four families made the remarks at a press conference in front of dozens of foreign journalists at the Carlton Hotel in Tel Aviv.

Rachel Goldberg, a Chicago-born mother of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was at home in Jerusalem on Saturday morning when air raid sirens sounded. She turned on her phone on the Sabbath because of the emergency, and saw two messages from Hersh, who had left the night before to go camping. “I love you,” he wrote. “I’m sorry.”

She said survivors informed her that his arm was blown off by a Hamas grenade at the music festival on the border. The last known cell signal from his phone was on the Gaza border.

Naher Neta, son of 66-year-old Fresno native Adrienne Neta, says he was on the phone with his mother as terrorists stormed her home.

“It sounds ridiculous to say this, but the optimistic scenario is that she is held hostage in Gaza, and not dead on the streets of the kibbutz where we grew up,” he says.

The elder Neta is a nurse who has delivered thousands of babies at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Ruby Chen, whose 19-year-old son Itay is missing following a battle with Hamas terrorists, asked the gathered journalists, “Please do not think of us only as a headline. We are more than that. We are people with families. And we want to be back as families again.”

Itay, who serves in the Armored Corps, was last heard from as the attack began. “After 70 hours, if he is not in the State of Israel, he is in another place.”

“I ask the US not to take a back seat,” said Chen. “The US has a lot of resources, it is able to do many things that is different than what the Israeli government can do.”