Daniel Birnbaum, former CEO of SodaStream, has continued to receive messages regarding his offer to financially compensate anyone who can bring an Israeli hostages held in Gaza back to Israel.
Speaking to the Knesset Channel, he said, "There are over 100 responses from all sorts of places. It could be Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, it's hard to tell from where - especially on Telegram. We are sifting these offers, trying to clear out the noise, and I am sending the defense echelon those which could be reasonable."
Asked why he made the offer in the first place, he explained, "I just felt that after [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu made his offer, with two sides of the triangle, I added the side of the prize. He offered the 'sides' of immunity and safe passage, the element missing was what makes it an offer that's hard to refuse from the perspective of a Hamas operative or a relative of a Hamas operative."
"In the past day and a half since the offer aired, I've learned to ignore the noise. There are curses, their are horror videos from October 7. ... Here and there, there are messages that might be interesting.
"Most of the messages are true garbage. It doesn't surprise me, but I want the one direct message. I want the one messages, I don't need a lot of messages. I pass along all the percentages of those which seem reasonable."
Birnbaum also said that while he is not working with the Hostages Families Headquarters, which is not connected to the initiative, many - "a great many" - families of some hostages support him and have reached out in appreciation.
"Here and there, there are people who oppose it, but I say - what do we have to lose? It's not like what we did until now has worked. So why aren't we trying something new?" he asked.
About those who claim he is pushing propaganda at the expense of the hostages, he said, "Maybe those are people who aren't doing anything themselves. It doesn't matter what they say. Who cares what people say? I want the hostages home - like you and like most of the people of Israel. And it's time, enough is enough!"