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Opinion | The Hostages Are Not a Diversion From This War. They’re at the Heart of It. [1]
['Moshe Emilio Lavi']
Date: 2023-11-15
More than five weeks ago, on Oct. 7, my brother-in-law Omri Miran was yanked away from his wife, my sister Lishay, and their two beautiful daughters, Roni and Alma, and kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The four of them had been held captive together at gunpoint by Hamas terrorists and their accomplices for hours; the family witnessed their community burn and their neighbors executed. And then they were separated: Omri was taken captive to the Gaza Strip, and Lishay, Roni and Alma were left behind, waiting for a similar fate or worse before Israel Defense Forces soldiers eventually rescued them.
For 40 days, Lishay has not known whether Omri is alive or dead, what his mental and physical status is, if he is treated well or not and whether she will ever again be able to say “I love you” — her last words to him before they were separated. She lives in terrible limbo.
Hundreds of thousands marched through London, Paris, Berlin and other European capitals over the last few weekends. Tens of thousands more attended demonstrations across the United States, including an enormous one in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Some were in support of Israel’s right to defend itself, some called for a cessation of antisemitism, and others marched for a cease-fire in Gaza or in support of the Palestinian cause. But for my family, there will be no end to this pain and no peace until the 240 hostages that Hamas kidnapped are rescued. We march for their release.
Omri, Lishay, Roni and Alma are not political pawns; they are human beings who deserve to be reunited as a family. Hamas has yet to allow any international humanitarian group to visit the Israelis and foreign nationals being held captive; we have no means of knowing if Hamas has kept the hostages alive or in what condition, let alone their general well-being. We pray they are still alive and in good health. But that we have no idea illustrates the urgent need to prioritize the release of all the hostages as a condition for any humanitarian pause or cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a conflict where emotions run high, the release of hostages can be a potent symbol of good will and a step toward envisioning the day after the war, when Hamas and its accomplices can no longer be allowed to rule the enclave.
Omri Miran and Lishay Lavi met in March 2020; their love bloomed when the world froze amid a global pandemic. Within three years, they built a home in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz situated about two miles from the Israel-Gaza Strip armistice line, married and gave birth to two daughters: Roni, who is 2 and a half years old, and Alma, just 7 months old. Omri worked as a shiatsu massage therapist and a gardener in the kibbutz; Lishay led educational programs that aimed to integrate Muslim Bedouin-Israeli students into Sapir College, the higher-education flagship of the northwestern Negev region within the Gaza envelope. Spiritual lovers of nature and mankind, they were optimistic about their future together until the sun rose on Oct. 7, a sunrise that shone on the deadliest morning in the history of the state of Israel.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/opinion/hostages-israel-war.html?searchResultPosition=64
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