Tzvika's son Eitan, who was guarding the Nova Festival, was captured by Hamas on 7 October. The eldest of eight siblings, he was only 23 at the time and the family have heard no news of him since March. Tzvika spoke movingly and eloquently about the impact Eitan's absence has had on the family, and of their collective decision to be brave for his sake, knowing that he would not want to be a bargaining chip in a Shalit-style exchange deal.
The Tikva Forum, Tzvika explained, represents around one-third of the hostage families. Of the rest, approximately one-third are pressing the government vociferously to bring back the hostages at any price. The rest are silent, do not make their views known and do not greatly engage with the rest.
Tzvika cited references in Tanach to no fewer than nine instances of hostage-taking, pointing out that in none of these cases did the innocent party indulge in negotiations. This showed, he argued, that the right path is through victory over the forces of evil, not entering into discussion with them. The correct path, therefore, is to refuse to have to do anything with our enemies and to stand up to them wherever necessary.
The talk concluded with a question-and-answer session in which several members of the audience were asking what they could do for the hostage families and how they could offer support, financial or otherwise, to the Tikva Forum. Tzvika confessed that he had nothing to do with the fund-raising side of things: it simply wasn't in his mission statement. He did however urge anyone who was interested to take to the social media and spread the word.
All in all, the evening was informative, educational, stimulating and well worth the effort that went into putting it on.