It was one year ago yesterday, on May 12th, 2025, that American-Israeli Edan Alexander was released after surviving 584 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza after being kidnapped on October 7, 2023 from southern Israel. I met Edan this past October in Tel-Aviv with my dear friend and Candidate for California\u2019s district 32 Dory Benami. As Dory and I were sitting on Dizengoff street having pizza with his wife Laura and their daughter something remarkable happened. I suddenly looked up, pointed, and said, \u201cThat\u2019s Edan Alexander.\u201d Edan grew up in New Jersey and moved to Israel at 18 to serve in the IDF\u2019s Golani Brigade. He was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and held in Gaza for 584 days before being freed this May. He was the last known living American hostage.\n<\/p>\n
As someone who went to every hostage rally in NYC and met with countless families this was a very emotional moment for me. I met Edan\u2019s father at an Event in New Jersey while he was still in captivity and his mother at the \u201cIsrael Hayom\u201d conference in NYC when he was released.\n<\/p>\n
My dear friend Dory Benami is an Israeli born American, a husband, a father, a small business owner, and a Democrat running for Congress in California\u2019s 32nd District. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, built his life in Los Angeles, and worked across law, film, trade, and business before entering politics. His campaign comes from a personal place. After October 7, while his wife was pregnant with their daughter, he felt that silence was no longer an option. He saw antisemitism rising, Israel being isolated, and too many people in American politics treating Jewish identity as something to be managed, softened, or apologized for. Benami decided to run as himself: pro-Israel, pro-America, pro-law enforcement, pro-immigrant, and rooted in the belief that Democrats need to return to common sense and speak to normal people again.\n<\/p>\n
Benami is not running as a polished insider or a party machine candidate. He is running as someone who knows what it means to be an immigrant, to build a business, to raise a family, and to worry about the direction of the country. His campaign focuses on safer neighborhoods, lower costs, better schools, serious border policy, support for small businesses, and a Democratic Party that can be both compassionate and firm. Meeting Edan Alexander in Tel Aviv connected many of the themes of Benami\u2019s campaign: Jewish survival, American strength, family, freedom, and the bond between the United States and Israel. For Benami, this race is not about chasing a title. It is about bringing a grounded, Israeli American, San Fernando Valley voice to Congress at a time when too many voters feel politically homeless.\n<\/p>\n
During captivity, Edan was kept in tunnels and safe houses, starved, beaten, and cut off from the world. Yet today he walks free \u2014 proud, calm, and determined to return to service in Golani. To quote my dear friend Dory, \u201cThat moment reminded me what binds Israel and the United States \u2014 courage, resilience, and moral clarity. The will to stand for what\u2019s right even when it\u2019s hard.\u201d As we parted ways with Edan, we embraced him and thanked him for his strength and resilience and wished him much success on the road ahead.\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe writer received his undergraduate degree in business (cum laude) from Yeshiva University and his MBA with double distinction from Long Island University. He is a financial advisor who resides in New York City, and is involved in Israel based and Jewish advocacy organizations\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was one year ago yesterday, on May 12th, 2025, that American-Israeli Edan Alexander was released after surviving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[131467,7,9,8,10977],"class_list":["post-314041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-2025-hostage-deal","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}