{"id":506647,"date":"2026-01-10T17:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506647\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T17:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T17:39:13","slug":"einav-zangauker-considering-entering-politics-to-send-home-netanyahu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506647\/","title":{"rendered":"Einav Zangauker considering entering politics ‘to send home’ Netanyahu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Einav Zangauker, the firebrand mother of released hostage Matan Zangauker, said over the weekend that she is considering entering politics and that her \u201clife\u2019s mission\u201d is to remove the current government.<\/p>\n

Zangauker, who emerged as a ceaseless advocate for the hostages\u2019 release and prominent protest leader, told television host Ofira Asayag on her Channel 12 talk show that she is\u201centering politics and\u2026will do the best she can for ordinary citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that over the past two years, she learned that \u201cpolitics in the State of Israel is rotten to the core,\u201d and that politicians \u201cdon\u2019t act in the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFixing the country can only be done by us \u2014 the citizens,\u201d Zangauker said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she is running for politics, Zangauker said she is \u201cconsidering everything\u201d but that she receives offers \u201call the time\u201d from various political parties.<\/p>\n

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While she initially said that she was considering all parties, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s ruling Likud, on Saturday Zangauker wrote in a post on X that, \u201cAs someone who personally endured for two years the pain of that terrible failure, the most important thing to me is to send home everyone who had their hand on the wheel on October 7, first and foremost, Netanyahu and the Likud party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, at Kibbutz Nir Oz on July 3, 2025. (X screenshot)<\/p>\n

She said that removing the current government is both her \u201clife\u2019s mission\u201d and \u201ca necessary condition for beginning the repair of our state and our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zangauker\u2019s son, Matan<\/a>, 26, was freed in October after two years in captivity. He was kidnapped during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks from Kibbutz Nir Oz with his now-fianc\u00e9e, Ilana Gritzewsky<\/a>, 31, who was freed in November 2023 after nearly two months in captivity.<\/p>\n

During the two years her son was held captive, Zangauker became one of the most recognizable faces of the battle to bring the hostages home, appearing regularly at protests and employing harsh invective against the government.<\/p>\n

She regularly delivered anti-Netanyahu tirades at protests she helped organize around the country, especially at the IDF headquarters\u2019 Begin Road entrance, which were typically louder and more critical of Netanyahu than the Hostages and Missing Families Forum\u2019s rallies at nearby Hostages Square, where Zangauker also spoke.<\/p>\n

She has continued to criticize the government\u2019s conduct since her son\u2019s release from Gaza, demanding fully independent and wide-ranging investigations into the failures surrounding October 7 \u2014 which Netanyahu and his allies are resisting.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tEinav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, who is being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, addresses the crowd at Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, demanding early elections and a deal for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, August 10, 2024. (Vardit Alon-Korpel\/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the very first moment I decided to speak out, [the government] kept trying to silence me and intimidate me,\u201d she said on Friday, adding that Netanyahu\u2019s office has been trying to contact her and Matan since his release, though they have flatly rejected the premier\u2019s outreach.<\/p>\n

She continues to be the target of death threats and online attacks from supporters of the prime minister, whom she accused of being directly responsible for the smear campaign<\/a>\u00a0against her and other hostage families.<\/p>\n

\u201cI scare him. I\u2019m the one who voted for him from the moment I had the right to vote; I believed in him,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the end, he is the one who caused my son to remain in captivity for two years, to undergo physical and psychological abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Einav Zangauker, the firebrand mother of released hostage Matan Zangauker, said over the weekend that she is considering…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":506648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-506647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115872030062279766","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}