Franklin Foer
There was a thin hope that despite everything, he might actually return home. It was stoked by a series of images that unexpectedly emerged.
Not long after Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s abduction on October 7, CNN stumbled on video of terrorists loading the Berkeley-born, Jerusalem-raised 24-year-old into a pickup truck, the stump of one of his arms wrapped in a tourniquet because a grenade had blown off the rest. It was proof of life.
In April, at the beginning of Passover, Hamas released a propaganda video. Then there was no doubting his full-blooded existence. Speaking to his captors’ camera, he rested the remnant of his arm in his lap. His once-wavy locks were clipped close to the scalp. Untangling his words from those imposed by the gun was impossible. But at the very end of the clip he addressed his mother and sister: “I know you’re doing everything possible to bring me home.”
As Shabbat descended this past Friday night and his parents turned off their phones for the day of rest, it was possible to imagine that Goldberg-Polin might finally emerge from the ultimate parental nightmare. Negotiations to end the war and bring home the hostages have been grinding along, even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has seemed intent on stalling a deal.
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