Why are we not hearing this hostage’s brother’s voice?
A small example suggests the possibility of mass social engineering affecting well-meaning people. I wonder what might be different if Nadav’s voice was given airing.
By now, you may have seen the proof-of-life videos of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin (released on 25 April 2024) and Omri Miran and Keith Siegel (released on 28 April 2024). You may also have seen videos of their family members expressing what it is like to see their loved ones alive, hear their voices, and plead for their release.
In the series of three short videoclips below, you will see how the media controls the message and perpetrates mass social thought engineering (in Hebrew, called הנדסת תודעה). I will first present my argument and then back it up with this series of clips.
Let me state my argument as questions:
- Why are the first two videos being shared over and over again in Israel and the USA and I only found the third one on the “X” account of the TV channel that did the interview?
- What impact on the general public in Israel and abroad does only showing the first two videos and not the third have on what people think about the situation?
- Were the third video to be as widely shared as the first two, would that make any difference?
Let me make it clear that I am not saying people should not hold the opinion held by those in the first two video clips. I am asking why that opinion is the only one that gets air-time on our mainstream and social media and what impact that has on society.
I don’t know if Nadav Miran, the man in question here, would like what I am saying or the use I make of the clip in which he appears, but this article is the result of my personal reflections on the interview he gave on Channel 11 News and about what happened next — absolutely nothing.
One: Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s mother’s message
At about 5:30 minutes in the video below, Rachel Goldberg-Polin says:
There is a baby there. There is an 86-year-old grandfather there. It is enough. Let’s be human. Let’s figure it out and let’s end this. All of these people with a lot of power and influence can get it done. It will be hard. It will be a steep, difficult compromise [background behind her now shows Gazan mother and child] because that’s what compromise is. Compromise is saying ‘I am going to give up something dear for something I hold even more precious. And that’s not easy. It requires courage, and it requires bravery, and it requires creativity, and it requires loving and caring about your people more than you hate the other. And I would beg and beseech, at this point, that we do that.
Two: Families of Omri Miran and Keith Siegel
The TV report opens with the narrator stating that Israel must now decide between continuing the war and getting the hostages back. This is in distinct contrast with PM Netanyahu’s (and not only his) repeated statements that the two goals are parallel and not a matter of either-or.
Omri’s father, Dani at 0:15 minutes:
I am convinced that all the people of Israel and the nations of the world want to see an end to the bloodshed and an end to the suffering of your people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the cabinet: please make any deal; every deal is doable. I’m asking you to make a decision now. Now. Now. Now.
The narrator continues, telling viewers how the hostage families want these videos shared in the hope that this will pressure the government into accepting a deal.
Ilan, Keith Siegel’s daughter (at 1.43 minutes):
Seeing my father today just emphasizes that we must reach a deal as fast as possible and bring them all home. I demand that the leaders of the country watch this video and imagine it’s their own father calling for help.
Thousands rally across Israel in call for hostage deal as families of Hamas captives held in Gaza say the government must make a choice between the war and getting the hostages back home pic.twitter.com/WoJSm6CsXs
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) April 28, 2024
In the complete clip, his daughter, Shir, notes how he is aware of the fact that everyone is coming out to demonstrate in support of his release and that of all the hostages, and his wife says they will keep fighting until he returns.
In a slightly longer clip (shown on Israel TV’s Channel 12 ) of Dani Siegel’s speech at the demonstration following release of his son’s video, he calls on “all decisionmakers, including Ben Gvir and Smotrich … to accept a deal — any deal.”
Once, just once, show leadership. Once.
Three: Omri Miran’s brother – a lone voice?
Nadav Miran was not on stage and this video was not shared like the two videos above. I consider myself lucky to have seen it.
נדב, אחיו של החטוף עמרי מירן שחמאס פרסם תיעוד שלו, ל-@mayarachlin: “הוא נראה טוב, קצת רזה עם זקן. זה היה מרגש לראות שהוא מדבר בצורה רהוטה ושהוא מפוקס. המסר שהוא העביר שם לא מעניין, ברור שזה תכתיב, יותר עניין אותי לראות אותו”#חדשותהשבת pic.twitter.com/QicC6iMGju
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 27, 2024
At first, Nadav Miran speaks about his excitement at seeing his brother in the video clip, noting that he is thinner but looks okay, cognitively and physically. Nadav explains that he does not pay any heed to the content of what Omri says as it is surely what he was compelled to say and he believes that Omri would have spoken differently had he been free to say what he wanted.
Then Maya Rachlin asks Nadav if he thinks someone in the Cabinet is listening to his father’s pleas to reach any agreement and NOW. Nadav thinks the Cabinet is not paying very much attention to the public. He then goes on to say:
I don’t think that a deal at any price, certainly not the last deal that is on the table, the deal the Egyptians tabled. The deal has to be to bring ALL 133 hostages at the same time; we have to change the attitude of phases — get off it. It’s not the right approach. Everyone together. Two buses. Boarding everyone onto the buses and bringing them home to Israel.
Rachlin then asks if he would agree that the war ends permanently in order for that to happen. His response:
Absolutely not! Absolutely not! The operation in Rafah is not connected in any way and has to be conducted in parallel with the negotiations. People! All the videos coming out now were exactly for the purpose of delaying the operation in Rafah. People! Enter Rafah yesterday! Yesterday!
We must fight in Rafah and eliminate them. It’s all a matter of pressure by Hamas. We have to eliminate Hamas.
When asked if the thought of battle in Rafah doesn’t cause him to worry about the hostages’ safety, Nadav says, “I am worried already for 204 days”
regarding the fate of Omri, my brother. Two hundred and four days. But we have to also consider the conditions under which we are going to free these people.
True! I want to see him here. He should not have ever got there. But not at any cost. Not for the cost which means we give a prize for the October atrocities.
All the deals considered until today constitute a prize for the victors, Hamas. And that is also the message we are going to deliver to the countries around us.
He was then asked if he thought that those involved in the hostage negotiations were politicizing the issue. He responded that he does not believe there is anyone — from the youngest to the oldest — who does not want the hostages to come home to Israel — yesterday. “Everyone wants that.” But he does suggest a lack of determination regarding the desire for their release.
And the disconnect from the public rumblings is also that the main purpose of all of the soldiers entering Gaza at this time is to bring the hostages home. They went in there in order to bring back the hostages. Everyone wants to bring the hostages home. But the decision how to do that has be made.
I say — People! Go into Rafah! That’s the decision that must be made. No other decision.
For over 204 days, Nadav has been imagining how the reunion with Omri will be. But he is also thinking about the big picture.
Why are his words not being repeated on the social media? Why is there no open discussion of the fact that some hostage family members believe that a military operation in Rafah is what will get the hostages out of Gaza? I don’t know if it would. But why is it not being openly debated?
And why are Nadav’s words — the words of a brother who wants his brother home no less than those call for ANY deal NOW — not reverberating around the country?
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