Professor Simcha Goldin, father of Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose body has been held by Hamas in Gaza for 4,108 days, said Wednesday that he rejects claims that U.S. President Donald Trump is tying Israel’s hands by urging it to advance to the next phase of the plan before Hamas returns the bodies of fallen soldiers.
“This is the Israeli government’s responsibility,” Goldin said. “Why must we always rely on the president of the United States? Why aren’t the government and the prime minister representing Israeli citizens, the reservists? Among the fallen are civilians. Enough with the excuses.”
He continued: “These people only bring excuses. Netanyahu should go to Trump and convince him that Israel cannot move to stage two before completing stage one. This agreement that Israel signed left an unprecedented loophole in international diplomacy — it left the fallen at Hamas’s mercy. We’re paying the price for that now. Until we bring them back, we cannot restore our national dignity or move forward. It’s simple. The prime minister must understand that.”
Goldin emphasized that the government’s mission must be to return the bodies of the fallen. “That will be the victory over Hamas — when we take back its symbols. The public understands this, Trump understands this, and now the government must show it can act. We must stop letting Hamas humiliate us, trample our dignity, and turn us into the Middle East’s fools,” he said.
He noted that in footage of the abduction of hostage Nimrod Cohen, the terrorists could be heard mentioning Hadar’s name — a sign, he said, that Hamas uses his son as a symbolic trophy.
“The prime minister’s mission is to bring back the fallen before the big money starts flowing in — before reconstruction and before the billions arrive,” Goldin added. “Once the money comes, people forget the fallen, and we head toward the next disaster. The time is now, before stage two begins — that’s what Netanyahu must explain to Trump.”
Asked how his family is coping amid the recent tensions, Goldin replied: “We’ve been dealing with this for 11 years. We’re resilient, though it’s very difficult, and we won’t stop until Hadar is returned. In a way, we’ve become an example for other families. I told the other hostage families early in the war — we must stand together and demand everything together. That hasn’t happened in the past two years, but now we’re fixing that. We’re no longer just the Goldin family — Hadar is no longer a private citizen. We are the face of the state. We’ll bring back Hadar and the others, reclaim the symbols, and make them ours. They are our symbols.”