On October 7, 2023, as the news broke and the horrific images from Israel began to be seen throughout the world, like many, I was shocked, appalled and disgusted at what I saw. The images of the brutal murders of innocent civilians were heartbreaking. Then the news came of the 240 innocent civilians - babies, children, women, elderly, and disabled - who were rounded up and taken hostage by Hamas. The hostage news and images struck me and I had flashbacks to 1969, when I was a child and taken as a hostage by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) a subset of the PLO.
My father, pregnant mother, three siblings, and I were in route from Rome to Athens on flight TWA 840. We were mid-flight when the hijackers announced that they had taken over the plane. They had believed Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yitzhak Rabin, was on the flight. He was not. Once the hijack was announced, fear overcame all of the passengers. Everywhere I looked people were praying and crying. As I looked to my parents for reassurance, the look of fear was on their faces – I had never seen that kind of fear on my parents’ faces before or since.
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After being in the air for hours we were encircled by Israeli fighter jets. Fear came over the plane that the fighter jets may shoot us down due to the threats expressed by the hijackers. We flew over Israel and ultimately landed in a deserted airstrip outside of Damascus, Syria, having run low on fuel. We were told to take off our shoes so as to not tear the inflatable emergency slides and prepared for a crash landing. Upon landing we slid down the emergency chutes and began running across the desert in fear for our lives. At that point, there was chaos and machine gun fire behind us, and, suddenly the front of the plane exploded. We continued to run across the desert to a cluster of Quonset huts and were surrounded by guerrillas in military uniforms with automatic rifles. They separated the men, women and children. I went with my father, so that he was not alone. I remember sitting on the rocky desert ground next to a Quonset hut - the hut wall did not come all the way down to the ground. Peeking under the wall, I saw some of the same military people take men inside the hut and interrogate them. They were leading people around at gunpoint, and I did not know whether my family and I would survive.
Eventually, they took us to an airport terminal where we waited for what seemed to be hours until they packed us on buses and drove us into the center of Damascus. We were held there for over a day. During that time, my parents were taken and interrogated one at a time. I didn’t know if either of them would return. For over a day, fear is all I felt.
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Through the efforts of various governmental officials from the US, Italy, Syria and Israel, we were released and flown to Athens on an Italian chartered jet.
I know what it’s like to be held against your will. I know what it’s like to be held at gunpoint. I know what it’s like to see fear of death in your family’s eyes. I know what it’s like to not know whether you will live or die. But I tell you this: this frightening, life changing experience, pales in comparison to the horrific, brutal, inhumane treatment those innocent Jews have experienced since October 7th.
As we've surpassed 3 months since October 7th, there are still an estimated 160 hostages that remain in captivity. This is unacceptable. I applaud the efforts that have resulted in the release of over 100 hostages so far, however, more must be done. Now.
It’s time for the Biden Administration and our leaders in Congress to step up and work to free these hostages from Hamas terrorist hands.
Every day that one of these innocent civilian hostages spends in captivity is another day that they live in fear of the possibility of never seeing their family again.
Every day that America’s leaders fail to act to further support Israel and the return of the hostages is another day that we have turned our back on our most important ally in the Middle East.
Every day that we refuse to set aside partisan differences and political bickering is another day that could result in the loss of life for another innocent civilian.
Enough is enough.
