DNC Downplays Hostages’ Families: ‘Hostage-Taking Way Down This Year’

The same approach as to the economy: statistics show improvement, ignoring those whose experiences do not reflect the numbers.

Chicago, August 22 – Organizers of the Democratic National Convention declined to give prominence or attention to the plight of Americans whose family members remain captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since last October, a spokesman for the event said today, because, they explained, doing so would ignore the wider context of no Americans falling captive in Gaza during all of 2023, which is much better news and the convention strives for positivity.

Democratic National Committee representative Lon Demon the remarks as part of a series of questions from reporters at the margins of the mega-event, which saw the Democratic Party formalize its selection of now-Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as the party’s nominees for president and vice president respectively.

The discussion began with journalists’ observations contrasting the DNC’s vibe with the firm pro-Israel tone of the Republican convention last month and the front-and-center position that event provided for families of Hamas hostages – both Americans and Israeli citizens. The Democratic event, on the other hand, has featured strident anti-Israel sentiment outside the arena, and an uneasy, ambiguous attitude toward the Jewish State within the official boundaries of the convention. The mood also contrasted with previous Democratic conventions.

Demon explained that the Harris-Walz team decided on the same rhetorical approach to the Gaza hostages as to the US economy: stress the statistics, which show overall improvement, while downplaying or ignoring the pain of millions of individuals or groups whose experiences do not reflect the official numbers.

“You have to understand that not a single hostage has been taken at all this year,” he argued. “Only looking at the 2023 data does a disservice to the big picture, which shows a one hundred percent decline in new hostages since October of last year. None at all in 2024. None. I won’t deny that individual circumstances can vary, and of course not everyone feels the positive developments the same way, or to the same extent. But the numbers do not lie.”

“It would be dishonest only to look at the number of hostages still held in Gaza,” he continued. “That’s only a part of the overall picture, and the overall picture is much more positive.”

In response to a separate line of questioning, Demon insisted that the most important aspect of the ongoing Israeli operation to destroy Hamas and retrieve the hostages remains the casualty count among Gaza residents, and that trying to place those in historical or local context represents the height of cruelty.

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