Diane Foley on America’s Hostage Blind Spot

Summary

The Gist: Diane Foley on America’s Hostage Blind Spot

Date: October 4, 2025
Host: Mike Pesca, Peach Fish Productions
Guest: Diane Foley, Founder & President of the Foley Foundation

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Episode Overview

In this poignant episode, Mike Pesca explores America’s unique relationship with its own hostages—why the U.S. public is less aware of or less invested in detained or kidnapped citizens as compared to more cohesive societies like Israel. The centerpiece of the show is an illuminating interview with Diane Foley, whose son James Foley was murdered by ISIS in 2014 and who has since become a leading activist for hostages and detainees through the Foley Foundation. They dissect the institutional blind spots, policy flaws, and emotional burdens surrounding Americans wrongfully held abroad.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

America’s Relative Indifference to Hostages

• Pesca explains how the U.S. public and government response to hostage situations is less urgent and cohesive compared to countries like Israel:

  • In Israel, hostages are central to national consciousness, with hostages’ names and stories universally known.
  • The U.S., even after several recent high-profile releases, barely registers these events in the collective awareness.
  • Quote:
    "All Israelis know their names, all Israelis know their stories... America doesn't about ours." (28:22)

• Recent examples: Releases of American hostages from the Taliban, with barely any media coverage or public reaction (29:07–30:00).

Diane Foley’s Personal Journey & Advocacy

• Initial government handling: Foley recounts being shocked by the lack of U.S. government urgency when her son James was held:

  • Minimal access to high-level officials; leadership deferred to mid-level FBI and State Department staff.
  • Consistently told James was the "highest priority," which was contradicted by inaction.
  • Quote:
    "I was shocked that the return of an American... is not a priority. It’s kind of a nuisance for our government because it interferes with our foreign policy." —Diane Foley (09:41)
  • Felt misled and ultimately angry at being told false assurances (11:13–13:10).

• Spark to action:

  • After James’s death, she co-founded the Foley Foundation to advocate for Americans kidnapped or detained abroad and promote journalist safety.
  • The nonprofit was partially responsible for pressuring the Obama administration to establish a U.S. “hostage enterprise” for coordinated response (13:40–16:05).

Evolution and Weaknesses in U.S. Policy

• Hostage Enterprise:

  • Established in 2015; included the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs and the Hostage Fusion Cell at the FBI.
  • Critical flaw: Focused only on hostages seized by non-state actors (criminals, terrorists), not wrongful detainees held by foreign states (16:11).

• Rise of State Actor Detentions:

  • Now, 95% of such cases involve wrongful detentions by foreign governments (e.g., Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela) (17:21).
  • This shift has significant impact on foreign policy and national security.

• Call for Reforms:

  • U.S. inter-agency response needs direct access to the executive branch—current layers of bureaucracy make swift action difficult (19:31–20:20).
  • The Robert Levinson Act lacks operational funding; returning hostages sometimes get billed for their own flights home. Families of detainees lack funds for advocacy trips to D.C. or to support their loved ones in foreign prisons (19:31–21:30).
  • The process for designating detainees as “wrongfully held” is too slow and opaque, sometimes taking years, leaving families stranded (21:30–23:37).
  • The U.S. needs much stronger deterrence so adversaries do not benefit from taking Americans hostage (21:30–22:36).

Notable Cases & Dilemmas

• Paul Whelan:

  • Officially declared a wrongful detainee, but his release remains elusive due to Russian intransigence (22:36).

• Brittney Griner:

  • Celebrity status led to a quicker wrongful detention designation, in contrast to several lesser-known Americans who've languished for years (24:32).
  • Quote:
    "Her, she was on the fast track... some people, like Paul Whelan, now it’s going to be near five years." —Diane Foley (24:32)

• Publicity vs. Discretion:

  • Foley advises families on the risks and benefits of going public. Media attention can help pressure governments, but can also make hostages more valuable to captors and subject to propaganda (25:43–26:27).

Societal & Cultural Contrast: Israel vs. America

• Pesca’s Reflection:
  • Israel’s cohesion and shared identity drive the nation to prioritize every single hostage.
  • The U.S.’s size and diversity, and perhaps overabundance of crises, diminish collective urgency.
  • There’s also “a strategic upside” to American indifference: the country is less susceptible to manipulative hostage-taking tactics, since it does not prioritize recovery as an overriding goal (32:26–35:23).
  • Quote:
    "In a way, a very cold blooded way, it’s an advantage. We can’t be manipulated by hostage taking... That is, I suppose, an upside of not feeling." —Mike Pesca (34:55)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Diane Foley on lack of government priority:

  "It was sad to them. A lot of people, I think, had compassion and were willing to listen... but I was really misled." (11:13)

• On policy reform:

  "Anyone dealing with hostage taking or the wrongful detention of our citizens needs to have clearer access to the Executive branch." (19:31)

• On inequities in attention:

  "Some cases aren’t prioritized the way others are, like Brittney Griner... but some people, like Paul Whelan, now it’s going to be near five years." (24:32)

• On the hard choice of publicity:

  "We publicized Jim's captivity... but it may well have increased his value for ISIS and therefore used it for propaganda." (25:56)

• Mike Pesca summing up the difference:

  "All Israelis know their names, all Israelis know their stories. All Israelis weep and grieve for them and prioritize them among their war aims. But wait, every country cares about their hostages. Do they?" (28:22)

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Important Timestamps

• [09:20] Diane Foley joins, retells her initial shock at government indifference
• [11:13] Foley describes being misled by officials on the priority of her son’s case
• [13:40] Founding of Foley Foundation and pressure for federal hostage policy reform
• [16:11] Splitting hostages (terror groups) and wrongful detentions (state actors) in policy
• [17:21] Overwhelming rise of wrongful detention cases by foreign states
• [19:31] Foley outlines concrete policy reforms needed: executive access, funding, transparency
• [21:30] Discussion of delays and challenges in designating “wrongful detention”
• [22:36] Paul Whelan’s designation and Russia as a hostile actor
• [24:32] Discrepancies in public and governmental attention (Griner vs. others)
• [25:43] Advice to families on publicizing cases
• [28:22] Pesca’s analysis comparing Israeli and American hostage ethos
• [32:26] Potential upside (“cold-blooded advantage”) of U.S. indifference

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Conclusion

This episode presents a sobering examination of America’s “hostage blind spot,” contrasting it against nations where citizens intuitively rally around hostages’ plights. Diane Foley’s account exposes disorganization, lack of support, and bureaucracy that families endure—yet also charts a path for meaningful reform and greater national accountability. As the conversation concludes, listeners are reminded of the human cost and the cultural factors that shape which citizens matter and which are forgotten—a question both urgent and unresolved.

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Transcript

[Mike Pesca]

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[Jeff Bridges]

Morning Zoe. Got donuts.

[Dana]

Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?

[Jeff Bridges]

Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So Dana.

[Dana]

Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Diane Foley]

Nice.

[Dana]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Mike Pesca]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

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[Mike Pesca]

Hi, it's Saturday. It's the Saturday show where I do one from the vault and one from the week. And this one, the one from the week informs and actually referenced the one from the vault. So I was looking over the 20 now 20 point plan to solve Gaza. Hamas gets a copy of it. Okay? And I noticed that so many of the points dealt with hostages. And that is because the hostages are very, very important to the Israelis. And you might say, well, hostages are important to every country. They want their hostages back. I'm not saying they don't. By they I mean America. I'm saying what do we do about it? How much does it occupy our mind share? How much do we obsess over it or prioritize it versus a country like Israel, a cohesive, more homogeneous country like Israel. And so I played a couple of recent pieces of tape of recent hostage releases of Americans under the premise you probably didn't even know they were taken hostage. I try to account for a couple reasons, a one or two to be fair, type reasons, but I think the real reason is Israel is one kind of country where they think of each other as one kind of people, where they care for each other, and America is a different kind of country. At the end of the spiel, I even talked about some of the strategic upsides for being more or less indifferent to the hostages informing this. And I didn't even get into it in the spiel, but why not? It's the Saturday. Informing this all was the release of a hostage taken by Iraqi militants, thugs you could call them, as the Biden administration thought of them as political actors in the fractious Iraqi system. And she wasn't an American, she was an Israeli Russian researcher and her name was is actually because she has been released, the United States played a key role in her release. Her name's Elizabeth Surkov. And Elizabeth Zerkov is back. And according to some excellent reporting by my friends at Lawfare, this Princeton student is back because the Trump administration and their hostage negotiator, who I reference in my spiel, had a different theory of the case than the Bidens did. Well, that's good. But most of us didn't even know that poor Elizabeth Tsirkov was taken by these Iranian backed militias in Iraq because as per my premise, America has a very different attitude towards its hostages. The attitude being essentially none. Now, in the spiel I talk about Diane Foley, who is an amazing woman who runs the Foley center. And in 2023 we talked about a bit about her son's experience and what she's been doing to try to raise awareness and gain the release of hostages throughout the world. And also the different kinds of tactics and strategies that hostage negotiators can deploy. So I sometimes say enjoy, but attend to this spiel and that interview from a couple of years ago. Life got you down or just stressed out. 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I was looking through some of my pro projects and a lot of them are things that you might have recognized me having talked about on the show. Jawbone, explanations, pass through, entities explained, price, inquiry, clarification. Great stuff there. Knowing facts. But then I ask it to do things. Oh, here's a great one. Iced tea copy. So what I did. A friend of mine runs an iced tea company and he asked me to help him write some copy. So I went through Walmart and I took photographs of every bottle of not just iced tea, but all the different kind of healthy snacks and granola. You can't sell a granola. Being honest, these days it's all about the healthfulness. And I got the little branding statements on the back and I loaded them all, not even by copying them down, just by loading them all via photograph into Claude. And I gave it prompts and I said, what are the most common words? I created a. Essentially a word cloud. And I wanted to avoid cliche, but also get some ideas. And then I said, if you were to construct a very cliched granola, I don't want to step on what I had to do personally, which was the iced tea stuff, granola, copy, what would you say? And so I avoided that. And then I gave it more prompts such as what if Dave Barry and Walt Whitman combined to write copy for a healthy snack? Great thoughts to Starter. And it was all or some. I mean, you know, we're collaborators, like I said, but it was all because of the Claude Mike collaboration. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. I think that story illustrates that it's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you, not for you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. That's what you want. That's what you want from an AI friend assistant, thought starter, ready to tackle bigger problems. Sign up for Claude today and get 50% off Claude Pro when you use my link claw. AI slash the gist. That's Claude. AI slash the gist right now for 50% off. Your first three months of Claude Pro. That includes access to all the features and that I mentioned previously. Claude.AI/the gist. WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner was freed from a Russian prison last month after a 10 month detention. This occasioned relief, celebration, consternation and accusation that in securing Briner's return, but not captive Paul Whelan, the Biden administration had screwed up or chosen incorrectly or not tried hard enough. There is, of course, nothing easy about the impossible situation that hostages, their families and presidential administrations find themselves in. Right now there are almost 60 publicly disclosed hostage and wrongful detention cases. And that statistic comes from the Foley Foundation. Diane Foley is the founder and president of this organization. Her oldest son, James Foley, was murdered by the Islamic State in 2014. It brought her to this activism. Diane, welcome to the Gist.

[Diane Foley]

Thank you so much, Mike.

[Mike Pesca]

So when this happened to your son and your family, I would assume that there could be no expectations. It was uncharted territory for you?

[Diane Foley]

Totally.

[Mike Pesca]

But even so, what surprised you, shocked you about the official reaction about this otherwise already shocking situation?

[Diane Foley]

Well, I was shocked that the return of an American, an innocent American who's kidnapped or unjustly arrested abroad is not a priority. That in fact it's kind of a nuisance for our government because it interferes with our foreign policy and other things our country's doing in the world. So I was rather shocked that it was no one's job to help bring Jim home. We had no hostage enterprise whatsoever. I had no access to the president or the executive branch. So I was just shocked at how low a priority the return of an American.

[Mike Pesca]

And how was this communicated to you or not communicated to you?

[Diane Foley]

Well, I was only invited to the White House one time and that was at the kindness of Susan Rice, whom I had met when she was at the United Nations. But even then I was just sent back to the FBI and mid level people at the state and FBI to talk about it. But they were people who, whose job did not involve diplomacy or any strategizing to bring Jim home. And so I was really sent in circles, Mike. I felt very patronized. In retrospect, I was patronized.

[Mike Pesca]

Did it seem to you like they just had no playbook for this and that's one of the reasons they kept you out of the loop? They had nothing positive to tell you.

[Diane Foley]

I think that's very true, Mike. It just was not priority. It just was not of interest. It was sad to them. A lot of people, I think, had compassion and they were willing to listen Pat me on the head. The part that was most upsetting was, though I really was misled. I was told multiple times that Jim was our country's highest priority. But in reality, in action, that was never the truth. And that's the part. I just wish our government had been more straight about it, that they couldn't do anything. They were powerless. Just be honest. But instead, for the first 18 months of Jim's captivity, I was told that Jim was their highest priority. And I believed it.

[Mike Pesca]

And how was it revealed to you that that was a lie?

[Diane Foley]

Well, as the other Jim was held with many of our allies. He was held with the French, English, Spanish, Italians and Dutch. Actually a Danish citizen, German citizen. But as they were negotiated out, it became more and more. I naively was hopeful that our government was doing the same thing for our people. But towards the end of 20 or the middle of 2014, it became obvious that. That our government was not negotiating with the captors, and they were abandoned, really. And I was shocked.

[Mike Pesca]

They were telling you he's our highest priority. But other governments who are telling their families he's their. Their citizens or their highest priorities were actually showing that you could negotiate for their release, that if they were the highest priority, why aren't we doing what the Danish and the French are doing? Therefore, it's obviously not our highest priority.

[Diane Foley]

Exactly, Mike. And that's when, you know, I just was. After Jim's murder, I was shocked, and I was angry, but I was really angry at our country for not having the backs of our citizens and for misleading me. It felt like I had been lied to, to be honest. Mike.

[Mike Pesca]

Yeah. So how did that go from those feelings, that shock, processing that tragedy, to the foundation that you started?

[Diane Foley]

Well, three weeks after Jim was killed, we had started a nonprofit to advocate for the return of Americans taken hostage or kidnapped abroad and to promote journalist safety, preventative safety, if you will. Because Jim would have wanted a silver lining. He would have wanted his death to help others in this situation. I had not had any idea that Americans are kidnapped and detained around the world. I had no idea. And because most people. It's just not something the public understands very much. I certainly did not. So we decided we had to do something about it, that America could do better. We had to have the backs of our citizens, particularly when innocent people who are working or traveling for business or whatever, pleasure, do nothing wrong and in fact, are taken hostage.

[Mike Pesca]

So you asked for what and got what?

[Diane Foley]

We started advocating. We went to the White House, we talked to others, you know, trying to Understand how this could happen. And it wasn't just us. It was. There were five other Americans who died in that 12 months. It was Peter Kassick, Kayla Mueller. It was Stephen Sotloff, a fellow journalist. It was also a businessman, Warren Weinstein, another journalist, Luke Summers. All of them had also been kidnapped and held hostage and died that year between 2014, 2015. So there was an outcry. So a lot of it was pressure on the Obama administration that what's this about? We can do better? I mean, and so finally I really felt he. I think his. I know his administration felt compelled to do all of government look at hostage taking per se. So they entrusted that to the National Counterterrorism Center. And By June of 2015, they issued a presidential policy directive that started the hostage enterprise, actually an accountable air agency, if you will, to try to help Americans come home.

[Mike Pesca]

So one of the things they also did was establish formal liaisons for people who would be in your position.

[Diane Foley]

Right, liaisons. We have now a special envoy at the State Department and hostage fusion cell at the FBI. Yes, the problem with it was, Mike, and it was great, and it was a huge step forward, but it was only focused on hostages. It did not look at wrongful detention and hostages. Our government looks at hostages as people who are taken by criminals or pirates or terrorists, whereas wrongful detentions are taken by state actors, other governments, other countries targeting and taking our people. And wrongful detentions opens a whole can of worms because it total. Because when states like Russia, Iran, China take our people, they want to interfere with our foreign policy, Mike. They want to hold our government hostage. They want to hurt us economically, politically, any way they can. So it makes it a much more complicated negotiation. Much more complicated.

[Mike Pesca]

And formal detentions are on the rise, whereas they're becoming the dominant form of this detention and hostage taking.

[Diane Foley]

Totally 95% of hostage taking, if you will, or kidnapping in the last year have been wrongful detentions by five foreign governments.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, that would indicate that they're doing that because just in terms of their. How they define it, it works. It to some extent works for them. Is there a flaw in US Policy that's allowing this to be successful for them?

[Diane Foley]

Well, that is why the Foley foundation is calling for a comprehensive look at the hostage enterprise. Because it's outdated, Mike. It was. It was done eight long years ago when most people were taken by criminals or terrorists, pirates. Now that's not the case at all. Now it's. It's foreign governments seeing this little weakness in our policy to Grab an American. Great. Now we can hold the US Government hostage. And so we must take a comprehensive look at this because it has huge implications for our own national security as a country. It directly interferes with our foreign policy and our economy, never mind the lives of Americans who travel internationally for work and such. So that is one at the top of our list. We really feel it needs a. The current hostage enterprise is at the mid levels of the State Department and FBI, and they really don't have the clear access to the Executive branch where those decisions about trades or concessions are made. So without that access, it is. It is really hard to negotiate any release.

[Mike Pesca]

Well, I'm all for looking and doing a comprehensive review, and I understand that this has not been undertaken, but is there anything specific that you or the Foley foundation is advocating for, for policies that that review could endorse?

[Diane Foley]

Absolutely. One of the big things is, as I said before, is anyone dealing with hostage taking or, or the wrongful detention of our citizens needs to have clearer access to the Executive branch. So they really need to be there as opposed to somewhere buried in our bureaucracy, because they need ability to talk to the National Security Advisor and the President if needed, to make decisions. Secondly, the Levinson act, which was named after Robert Levinson, held so very long in Iran, lacks funding. Can you imagine, Mike, when a captive is brought home, our government doesn't have funding to pay for that flight. In many cases, the person returning home is billed for the flight to come home. We also have other Americans in some prisons in Venezuela where they get no food and water unless the family is able to pay for such things. So there's many holes in the funding there. There's no funds for these families who might live in California, Arizona, to come to D.C. to advocate for the return of their loved ones. So the Levinson act does not have funding that it needs. It also mentions the. It tells consular that they must decide who is a wrongful detention. Out of the thousands of Americans who may be arrested abroad, they've got to sift through and decide who is a wrongful detention. Well, the problem with that is it's a big job, for one thing. But what's happened is the process is opaque and in some cases we're seeing it's taken two years to decide if a particular American is in fact a wrongful detainee or not. And therefore then they don't get any of the help of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs. They're left a consular whose job is not to advocate for their release. So the wrongful detention process needs to be more transparent for families and more timely. But the other big thing, Mike, is we need much stronger deterrence to the practice of hostage taking. We need to be much. We need to look at it. We need to bring these people home. Yes. But we also need to have a strong path and deterrence so that Russia is hurt when it takes one of our citizens, as opposed. Because we certainly do not want to incentivize them taking our people. So we need much stronger deterrence. And that is why I think there's a need to really look at the whole issue in a bigger way, because we don't want to. We want to deter the practice, period. We want Americans to be able to travel safely in the world.

[Mike Pesca]

Has Paul Whelan been officially designated a wrongful detention?

[Diane Foley]

Definitely, yes. Paul has been a wrongful detainee within a few years of his captivity. It took a while to get that, but. But yes, he is. And still you can see the difficulty in dealing with Russia. They make it as difficult as they can, Mike. As difficult as they can.

[Mike Pesca]

Are there others who we may know and have been publicized where designating them as officially wrongfully detained has been a problem or is still.

[Diane Foley]

Oh, many, many. We have so many coming to us. We have a call tomorrow with a, with a. And I can'. Give names. But so many people so anxiously wanting this wrongful detention and believing it for their level because then they'll get those services at the State Department for wrongful detainees. So it's the, the slowness of that process, the lack of urgency and lack of transparency for families is a huge problem.

[Mike Pesca]

But it can't always be granted. Right? I mean, there are instances where the, where the State Department looks into this and says either laws were violated or, I don't know what you would know about this, but what if the person has been working for US Intelligence?

[Diane Foley]

So true. So true, Mike. Well, I mean, if it was working for US Intelligence, that's a whole other category. But we're talking about a real crime. Like, did our citizen create. Do a crime in that country, Rob, steal, kill somebody?

[Mike Pesca]

But then there's also the, the vaguer gray area of proportion proportionality. So Brittney Griner did have illegal drugs, but you know how. I guess the question is, you know, it does seem unconscionable to detain her for that long over what she had. Yet there is a question of, okay, what would be an amount where the US State Department couldn't say that it was wrongful detention.

[Diane Foley]

But see, that's the problem, Mike, there is a lot of gray there. I mean, there is, there is. And so that is why I'm sure it takes the time to decide. But we've noticed that some cases aren't prioritized the way others are, you know, like Brittney Griner, because of her celebrity. And I'm very grateful, believe me. I'm so glad she's home. But her, she was on the fast track, you know, she got her wrongful detention decided early on. And whereas some people, like Paul Whelan, now it's going to be near five years. We have so many others in Iran. We have several, five, six years now. CMAC Namazi is currently doing a hunger strike. Seven years. You know, he's one of our. He's a US citizen, you know, there to visit family, you know, and we're seeing Imad Namazi a similar situation. Another upstanding US citizen just held because they can do it and, and wanting to interfere with our policy while they do it.

[Mike Pesca]

When someone is detained and a family comes to you, there's a calculation about do we publicize this and how much publicity do we give? What are some of those considerations? What's the advice the foundation gives?

[Diane Foley]

You know, we always, we, we try to tell the families, both sides. There's like, even with us, we publicize Jim's captivity because we're so desperate for some help. But it may well have increased his value for ISIS and therefore used it for propaganda. So there's always that potential downside. But, but on the other hand, to be quiet is nothing. I mean, we never. It has not been a priority for our country.

[Mike Pesca]

Diane Foley is the founder and president of the Foley Foundation. Thank you so much, Diane Ann, such a pleasure.

[Diane Foley]

Mike, thanks for your time. God bless you.

[Mike Pesca]

The gist is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

[Jeff Bridges]

Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.

[Dana]

Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our grand.

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

Oh, no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly AT T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Dana]

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[Diane Foley]

You heard them.

[Jeff Bridges]

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[Mike Pesca]

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[Jeff Bridges]

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[Mike Pesca]

3, 4, 5 and 6 of the 20 point Gaza Peace plan are all about the hostages. Now, this war is a multigenerational, enormously costly humanitarian disaster, and a full quarter of the plan to end it is about 20 people and the bodies of some others. Why? Because Israel really cares about their hostages. All Israelis know their names, all Israelis know their stories. All Israelis weep and grieve for them and prioritize them among their war aims. But wait, every country cares about their hostages. Do they? Did you, as an American, know about this?

[Diane Foley]

Afghanistan's released a US Citizen who'd been detained since December, Amir Amiri, was released through Qatari mediation and arrived in the capital, Doha, late on Sunday night.

[Mike Pesca]

It happened two days ago. I know there's a lot going on in the world, but chances are you didn't hear of that. I found two news clips of that release online, one Fox and this one, which was Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera, yes. Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, was the go between, as is the case with all Taliban negotiations. Adam Bowler, the US Special envoy for Hostage Response, has actually been doing quite an amazing job, even if you don't know about it. Not that it's a secret. The Biden administration also did their part.

[Dana]

It was a homecoming celebration this afternoon.

[Diane Foley]

For Ryan Corbett, the Dansville man who was held hostage by the Taliban for nearly 900 days.

[Mike Pesca]

Corbett's release was on January 21, 2025, to embarrass Joe Biden. There's a bit of hostage release history there. The Iranians did not release the hostages until after Ronald Reagan was sworn in to embarrass Jimmy Carter. But it was the State Department of the Bidens that did handle that negotiation. Did they trumpet it? Did we hear about it? Israel knows and cares about its people. America doesn't about ours. Oh, if we hear that a hostage was released. We'll say generally, oh, that's good. But we just learned about the detention in the first place in the sentence setting up the fact of their release. Okay, well, you might say Israel is a country of 10 million. Easier to know and care about your citizens when you're 1/30 the size of the United States. Well, Atlanta is a city of six and a half million people in the metro area. Did many Atlantans know this name for roughly two years and four months wrongfully detained by the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan. And now Atlanta resident George Glesman is home. There's a different dynamic in a small, tight knit country with a common creed. Israel was founded specifically to protect Jews, but they do take seriously their commitments to protect all their citizens. Last August, a Bedouin, one of five Arab Israeli citizens abducted on October 7 was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces. Of course at their great peril. Here is the IDF spokesman afterward talking about the operation and then he gives us the count.

[IDF Spokesman]

At the time we cannot go into many details of this special operation, but I can share that Israeli commandos rescued Qaed Farhan Al Qadi from an underground tunnel following accurate intelligence. His medical condition is stable and he will undergo examination in hospital. His family had been waiting three hundred and twenty six days to receive the news they did today. But there are still one hundred and eight hostages whose families are still waiting to hear news that their loved ones are home. And they should know that we will not rest. We will not rest until we fulfill our mission to bring all our hostages back home.

[Mike Pesca]

And now the number of live souls is down to 20. Israel and Netanyahu's critics paint their prioritization, the 20 as dishonest or manipulative or a pretext to keep fighting and killing Gazans. But no matter Netanyahu's always present political calculations, this is a genuine part of of Israeli society. Their concern for their hostages by extension their concern for each other. And it is clearly sincere and it's often to their detriment that they care so much. It was a farcibly lopsided past negotiation that led to the release of Yahasse Sinwar to free a single Israeli soldier. And one could argue, as many of Israel's critics do, that they care about their own to affair the well, endangering others in order to to protect and rescue Jews. I would say almost all Israelis would quibble with the first clause of that statement, but none would argue with the second. They want to protect and rescue Jews and each other and their citizens, they know and care and put in the forefront of their concerns the safety of their people. America quite clearly does not. We might think we do. But let me ask you to place these names. Wilbert Castaneda. Jorge Marcelo Vargas. Lucas Hunter. Renzo Castillo. Now, you might guess they're hostages somewhere and maybe you could even guess the name of the country going by most of the last names I read there. It's Venezuela. The Foley foundation, named after James Foley himself a hostage, a journalist who was killed, and it's now run by his mother. Diane Foley, who's been a guest of the gist, keeps a list. 54Americans wrong, wrongfully detained or held hostage in 17 countries around the world. There was one time, I would say, in the last 10 years, when even 10% of Americans knew one name of one hostage, and that was the already famous basketball player, Brittney Griner. And by the way, her freedom was fracturing rather than unifying to our country. Whether it's a symptom of size heterogeneity or the deluge of other news, Americans do not have a shared sense of commitment to each other that other countries and especially this one other country definitely has. In a way, a very cold blooded way. It's an advantage. We can't be manipulated by hostage taking. We can't be hurt. That is, I suppose, an upside of not feeling. And that's it for today's show. Cory Warra produces the Gist and Ashley Khan is our production coordinator. Astra Green is still helping out with some of the socials, but you know what, Jeff Craig, he's riding hard on all things social. Kathleen Sykes, she writes the Gist list with me. Also let me say Michelle Pesca is COO of Peach Fish Productions. Improve G Peru, do Peru. And thanks for listening.

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