NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE {W} hat are the names of the ten American citizens who, per our secretary of state, are still “being held in Gaza by Hamas”? How old are they? Are they adults or children? Men or women? Retired or of working age? Do we know where they are? Have we any insight into their condition? What chance is there of their release, and, if so, what is the federal government doing to secure it?

I ask these questions less as a political writer, and more as an American citizen who has been alarmed by the subdued coverage of this crisis in the media and by the apparent lack of interest in the topic within the Biden administration. Describing the situation last week, Secretary Blinken confirmed that we’ve still “got ten unaccounted for Americans,” and, worse yet, that the U.S. government believes “that some significant number” of those “unaccounted for Americans” are “hostages” who have been captured “by Hamas.” Okay: So who are they? And what’s the plan to get them back?

These are not idle inquiries. The attack of October 7 claimed 33 American lives, making it one of the deadliest terrorist attacks for Americans in history. If, as Secretary Blinken suggests, another ten Americans remain captive in Gaza, then the attack of October 7 was also — is also — one of the worst hostage situations for Americans on record. In any other era, these facts would have guaranteed wall-to-wall coverage in the press and regular updates from the president. In different circumstances, we’d see the hostages’ photographs in the daily newspapers; we’d see ticking chyrons on cable news: “Hamas Hostage Crisis: 27 days and counting”; we’d hear journalists demanding information daily in the White House briefing room. Instead, the matter has been treated as a mere afterthought.

Why? I’m afraid that the answer is both obvious and overdetermined. Because Joe Biden is unpopular, and his likely opponent is Donald Trump. Because the echoes of Jimmy Carter’s failures give our newsroom doyens heartburn. Because Jews were the victims of this one, and in our current hierarchy of the deserving, Jews seem not to count for a great deal.

This is a disgrace. Above all else, the federal government exists to represent the United States and its people in the world. We can — and do — argue vehemently about what other roles Washington, D.C., ought to perform, but, as the Constitution makes abundantly clear, foreign policy represents the bare minimum of its responsibilities. In 1963, President Kennedy suggested that “Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was ‘civis Romanus sum.’ Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein Berliner.” I have always thought this was bunk. Then, as now, the proudest boast ought to be civis Americanus sum: I am an American citizen.

In this, I side with the British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, who explained to the House of Commons in 1850 that his decision to send a gunboat to Greece in defense of a British citizen who had been targeted by an antisemitic mob had been directly inspired by Rome. “As the Roman, in days of old, held himself free from indignity when he could say, civis Romanus sum,” Palmerston said, “so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him from injustice and wrong.” Once upon a time, the United States operated by a similar principle, as was illustrated by its conduct during the Koszta Affair of 1853 and the Perdicaris Incident of 1904, the latter of which helped Theodore Roosevelt win reelection to the presidency.

Quibble if you must, but there can be no comprehensible definition of “injustice and wrong” that would not include “kidnapped by Hamas.” Thanks to the terror group’s own gleeful advertisements, we know precisely what sorts of dangers those in Hamas’s custody will face: They are at risk of being tortured, raped, beheaded, set on fire, and more besides. It is understandable that the average citizen may not wish to contemplate this problem for too long, and it is no doubt rather inconvenient for President Biden that all this happened so soon after he gave Iran $6 billion. But ignoring it will not make it go away. As ever, our geopolitical adversaries are watching how we behave, and they will adjust their behavior accordingly. If Americans treat their passports as if they mean something concrete, then American passports will be treated by the world as if they mean something concrete. If Americans treat their passports as abstractions, then, over time, their passports will become regarded as abstractions. There can be no good time to cheapen one’s word.