“Bring Hersh home now,” say big white letters on a red banner, hanging on a building on my Jerusalem street. It’s one of many banners in my neighborhood, where Hersh Goldberg-Polin grew up.
I walk down the street two hours after the early morning news flash that Hersh and five other Israeli hostages were murdered by their Hamas captors in a tunnel under Gaza. I am trying to remember how to breathe, and how to weep, how not to be numb.
Hersh has come home. In a body bag.
It’s 9:00 in the morning on Sunday. Joe Biden has issued a statement of condemnation and consolation, focused on Hersh, who was a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen. Kamala Harris has issued a statement. By 9:15 Benjamin Netanyahu’s office’s only statement is that he has cancelled his ceremonial appearance at a classroom to mark the start of the school year. Frankly, this is not a good morning for the prime minister to fake his love for the children of Israel.
(It will take nearly two hours more for Netanyahu to produce words about the hostages’ deaths. His statement will be militant. As usual, it will include no acknowledgment of error or responsibility on his part.)
As of yet, news........