Dr. Leah Goldin, the mother of Hadar Goldin, the soldier who was killed in Gaza and whose body was abducted by Hamas terrorists, has an important message for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ahead of his meeting this week in Washington DC with President Joe Biden.
“The most important message should be that we ask the Americans to bring our soldiers home as a confidence building measure to any agreement, to any project that is going to [happen] in Gaza, knowing that the Americans now have a policy to invest in Gaza,” she said in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva.
With Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recently speaking about American plans to invest heavily in Gaza, the current situation is a reflection of the similar situation Israel found itself in after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, with Americans enforcing a ceasefire after which building projects in Gaza are intuited.
“When you initiate a project where money is involved, you demand guarantees for that investment, so one of the guarantees now at the moment of initiation should be to bring our boys home,” Goldin said. “It’s the most natural and obvious thing to do in any agreement.”
Hamas representatives in Egypt and Qatar must understand that projects won’t go forward unless they “show seriousness” and release the soldiers, she added.
The US are the only ones who can do it, she said. She remarked that they made releasing the hostages a precondition of talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and they are doing the same in current negotiations with Iran over renewing the nuclear deal.
“They know how to do it. They can do it. They have leverage on the Egyptians, on Qatar. The only thing Bennett [has to do] is put it on the table and say, ‘Yes, please, we need it and this is your moral duty to us as the one enforcing the ceasefire in our region.’”
Goldin was previously in Washington DC for two days of meetings with White House and State Department officials, and with Congressional committees.
“They all say ‘Yes, this is our responsibility.’ Because they believe in international humanitarian law.”
She called on Bennett to take her message to his meeting with Biden.
“Just continue it. Continue my effort. Continue the fact that President Rivlin and myself opened the door wide,” she said. “This is a moment for Prime Minister Bennett to rectify the seven years agony, and the fact that the soldiers were left in Operation Protective Edge and now bring our boys home. This would be the victory of the last war.”
She added that the fact that Hadar was killed during a ceasefire brokered by the US and the UN and supported by the EU means that “the international community is responsible for rectifying [the situation] no less than they guaranteed the ceasefire.”
There is current a “window of opportunity” with the change in US policy regarding its stated intention to spend a large amount of money on projects in Gaza.
“Now when reconstruction is in discussion, it’s unbelievable that we don’t discuss it, and Prime Minister Bennett has to say it out loud, not just to President Biden. Also to the Israelis, to the mothers [whose sons and daughters] are in the IDF,” she said.