“The Israeli government has a distorted view of victory”

“The Gaza War is more like a crusade for them.”

There is “a gulf” between how the US and Israeli governments treat the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, says professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui, 35, was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 while He tried to protect his family. and other residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz. Sagui Dekel-Chen’s wife, Avital, gave birth to the couple’s third daughter in January.

Speaking to Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, the dual Israeli-American citizen – who has not received new information about his son in eight months – compared the “inexplicably irritating” behavior of members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to his American counterparts.

Dekel-Chen said he felt “privileged” to receive the attention and sympathy offered by US President Joe Biden and his administration – along with the other dual nationals caught up in the hostage nightmare. He also noted that he felt similar support “through and through” from members of Congress, “regardless of what their views are on Israel’s conduct of the war.”

In Israel, on the contrary, “we had no direct communication from senior ministers, nothing – it is unthinkable in a small and intimate country like ours”. He suggested that perhaps there would be more sympathy and support if those whose communities and lives were “destroyed” by the events of October 7 came from the right-wing religious constituencies that make up Netanyahu’s governing coalition.

Although Biden has put another ceasefire and hostage agreement on the table, urging Netanyahu and Hamas to agree to its terms, “the Israeli government has a distorted view of what victory is,” according to Dekel-Chen. “This war is more like a crusade… its goals are dictated by the fringe and radical far right.”

In the podcast, Dekel-Chen also explains why, as a history professor at Hebrew University, he thinks comparisons between October 7 and the Holocaust are inaccurate and dangerous. “Other than the death that day, there are no real similarities,” he says, “and this simply serves as a very easy explanation for a horrible day and lets the people who should be held responsible off the hook. some force majeure that is so beyond our control that it was almost inevitable. This is absolute nonsense.”

Via Hareetz