Warren Weinstein Asks Bibi To Win Release
Kidnapped American Warren Weinstein called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help free him from his al-Qaida captors.
The plea from Weinstein, 71, was included in a video released by al-Qaida late Wednesday night.
“As a Jew, I am appealing to you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the head of the Jewish State of Israel, as one Jew to another, to please intervene on my behalf, to work with the mujahideen and to accept their demands so that I can be released and returned to my family, see my wife, my children and my grandchildren again,” he said in the video, according to reports.
Weinstein, of Rockville, Md., also said the U.S. government has “no interest” in his case.
He was kidnapped in August 2011 outside Pakistan while he was working for J.E. Austin Associates, a private company that advises Pakistani businesses.
In May he appealed to President Obama to save his life.
“My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” Weinstein, a former Peace Corps and USAID official, said on the video posted on Islamist websites. “If you accept the demands, I live. If you don’t accept the demands, then I die. It’s important that you accept the demands and act quickly and don’t delay.”
The demands included a halt to U.S. airstrikes and the freeing of all al-Qaida and Taliban suspects, according to reports.
The United States has said it will not negotiate with al-Qaida, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization.
In a video released in March, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said he would swap Weinstein for prisoners in the U.S. with links to the organization. The video noted that Weinstein was Jewish.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
