Mr. President, it’s your job to fee American citizens kidnapped by Hamas
In 1904, the U.S. citizen Ion Perdicaris was kidnapped by Ahmed al-Raisuni, leader of a tribal confederacy in Morocco.
President Theodore Roosevelt sent seven U.S. Navy worships carrying a contingent of Marines to the Moroccan port of Tangiers. At the Republican convention that summer, John Hay, Roosevelt's secretary of state, issued a statement: “We want Perdicaris alive or Raisuni dead.” The U.S. got Perdicaris back alive.
According to the U.S. State Department, Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 men, women and children including 46 Americans in its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In addition to the murders, Hamas kidnapped 254 people including 11 Americans.
The parents of the kidnapped 23-year-old American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, spoke at the Democratic National Convention last August. Delegates chanted, “Bring him home.” A week later, Hamas terrorists murdered him and five other hostages. Three Americans remain alive and in captivity: Edan Alexander, Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen.
President Joe Biden issued a statement on Dec. 2 after learning of the death of the 21-year-old American Omer Neutra, whose body Hamas had held since the Oct. 7 attack: “Less than a month ago, Omer's mother and father joined me at the White House to share the pain they've endured as they prayed for the safe return of their son — pain no parent should ever know.”
Words are cheap. I hope Biden is asking himself, “What would Theodore Roosevelt do?” In other words, what concrete actions should be undertaken by the United States to free the three citizens still held by the kidnapper-terrorists? Yes, the United States is supporting Israel against those who would destroy it and murder its inhabitants. But why is the United States depending on Israel to do its job of protecting U.S. citizens abroad? Doesn't the mere fact that the U.S. sits on the sidelines encourage more such attacks on Americans overseas?
In 1976, an Air France airliner was hijacked and flown to Entebbe in Uganda. Over a hundred Israeli and Jewish passengers were held along with the flight crew. Rather than yielding to terrorist demands, the Israeli government sent commandos who successfully rescued all but three hostages. They protected their citizens.
I disagree with President-elect Donald Trump on almost every issue, but there is one where he speaks to my despair and rage. He's declared if the hostages held by Hamas are not released by the time he takes office, “all hell will break out.”
Don Pacifico was a British consul in Athens in 1850 when his house was attacked by mobs. Lord Palmerston, the British foreign secretary, stood up in Parliament and made clear his country's policy: that “a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England, will protect him against injustice and wrong.”
That's what I'm looking for from American foreign policy now and in 2025: making it clear around the world that “the watchful eye and the strong arm” of the United States will protect American citizens from “injustice and wrong.”
The first of the 12 days of Christmas was on Dec. 25. The first of the eight nights of Hanukkah was also on Dec. 25 this year. We've all been hearing Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas is You” on the radio, streaming on the internet and over store loudspeakers. What I want this holiday season from you, President Biden, is the safe return of Edan Alexander, Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen.
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