CHICAGO, Illinois — The delegates at the Democratic National Convention rose to their feet, and stayed there, as the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of five living American hostages still being held captive by Hamas, spoke on Wednesday.
Like the Republican National Convention last month in Milwaukee, which featured the parents of another American hostage, Omer Neutra, Democrats gave a speaking slot to Goldberg-Polin’s parents, both Chicago-born.
Like the Republican delegates, the Democrats chanted: “Bring them home!”
But the introductory speech by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) did not mention the fact that Goldberg-Polin was attacked in Israel. Nor did Booker mention the Palestinian terror group Hamas. He described Goldberg-Polin as an American citizen without mentioning that Hersh is also, through immigration, an Israeli citizen.
Rachel Goldberg, Hersh’s mother, noted that the music festival at which Goldberg-Polin was attacked, and from which he was abducted, was in southern Israel. She also noted that 1,200 people were murdered on October 7 in southern Israel.
The message, overall, stressed the diversity of the hostages, rather than the fact that they were abducted because they were in Israel, by a Palestinian terror group that is determined to destroy Israel and to murder Jews worldwide.
The identities of the perpetrators and the victims were obscured — likely deliberately. In contrast, Neutra’s parents noted their son’s dual Israeli-American identity, described the terror attack as having been carried out by Hamas, and concluded: “God bless Israel and God Bless America.”
The speech at the Democratic National Convention was different. And that may have been a smart strategy, for a number of reasons.
As Jon Polin, Hersh’s father, told the crowd, the issue is not a partisan one. The families of the hostages want to appeal to as broad a group as possible.
If a crowd will be less inclined to listen if they know the hostages are Israeli, then it may be best to downplay that fact, for their sake.
It may also be good, as Polin did, to express empathy for the people of Gaza, avoiding the broader Palestinian issue.
But it is, arguably, odd that Democrats appear to have believed their own convention needed to downplay the Israeli identity of the victims of Hamas terrorism on October 7.
In a context where left-wing activists are demanding that Jews give up their love of Israel as the price of acceptance, the Democratic convention risked doing the same.
Earlier Wednesday, the Forward reported that Palestinian activists were disgruntled when the news broke that the parents of an Israeli hostage were to be given a speaking slot: they wanted a pro-Palestinian slot as a counterpoint. (That role may have been played by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, who called for a ceasefire in Gaza before Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents spoke.)
The good news: both Democrats and Republicans are committed to bringing the hostages home. For a moment, at least on one issue, Americans were united.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.