A US citizen held by al-Qaeda in Pakistan has appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help.

In a video released by al-Qaeda on Wednesday, Warren Weinstein, 71, said that he had been abandoned by President Barack Obama and the US Government and was therefore turning instead to Netanyahu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdXBoJYFyvU&feature=player_embedded

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“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,” Weinstein, who was working as a contractor in Pakistan when he was kidnapped, said in the video.

He noted that Obama had, in his words, shown no interest in the case.

Last May, Weinstein, who was captured in Lahore and has been held captive for over year, made a similar video in which he appealed to Obama for help.

Al-Qaeda is demanding the release of prisoners held by the US and an end to air strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Gaza.