Photo after photo. Each one worth a million words. Ariel Cunio and Arbel Yehoud. Avintan Or and Noa Argamani. Omri Miran with Lishi and the daughters. David Cunio with Sharon and the daughters. Elkana Bohbot with Ram and Rivka. Ziv and Gali Berman wearing Maccabi Tel Aviv shirts. Eitan Horen wearing a Hapoel Be’er Sheva shirt with his brothers. And the helicopters. And the inscriptions on the board. And Yehudit Ravitz. And Omer Adam. It all punches the gut. It floods you with tears. To see it and not believe it. And in fact to believe: it is real. They are home.
It is doubtful there have been days like this in Israel’s history. Perhaps on 5 Iyar 5708 (Israel’s War of Independence). The happiness and the celebration and the ability, for a single moment, to unite. To set everything aside. Yes, even the awareness that it is not truly finished: there are still hostages to be brought home. And the price paid to buy this day: 915 fallen IDF soldiers, and tens of thousands more wounded in body and spirit. And the worry about what comes next: Hamas has returned to rule Gaza, and it will not be quick to lay down its weapons. And the realization that we have not really changed: here in the Knesset, while all this was happening, small-time politics took place on a great national day.
The scale of the event
It is worth pausing for a moment on what happened in the Knesset. President Trump’s visit was historic. He deserved, and rightly received, credit for his decisive role in returning the hostages. And his speech — Trump at his best — blunt, politically incorrect, and still the best show in town. It is a pity the Knesset and its leadership could not rise to the occasion: when they chose to exclude from the ceremony the president of the Supreme Court and the attorney general, and when they invited party operatives, vote brokers and celebrities as if this were a Likud rally.
Trump pleased with the warm reception Photo: Oren Ben Hakoon
Unity turned out to be a slogan. Just like peace. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom this was a great day, had the chance to enlarge it by attending the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. He should have gone and said just two sentences: On October 7, Hamas attacked the State of Israel — murder, rape and abduction, forcing on us a war we had no choice but to fight. That war ended today, and I stand here offering my hand to all of you for a pact of the brave, for a peace from strength that will change the face of the Middle East forever.
The Erdogan threat
But Netanyahu chose to stay in the country. Maybe it was the holiday, maybe the fear of being photographed in the same frame with Mahmoud Abbas and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and maybe the threat of boycotts by Erdoğan and the prime minister of Iraq. In any case, at the single moment he could have moved Israel forward he chickened out. Instead of returning Israel to center stage, the country remained on the sidelines while others debated its future without it.
At the same time, a planned visit to Israel by the president of Indonesia was canceled after someone leaked the plan; the world’s largest Muslim state’s president decided to bow out. Two offices knew of the visit: the prime minister’s office and Mossad, which had worked on organizing the secret trip. It is reasonable to ask why no one around Netanyahu is demanding an investigation into the leak that caused real damage to the State of Israel.
Trump, Netanyahu, Abbas
The coming days will be accompanied by a natural easing of tension. After the holidays, children will return to school and adults to work. Netanyahu will also return to his four-times-a-week court sessions. The spontaneous pardon President Trump tried to arrange for him amused the Knesset but had little real value. Polls will flatter Netanyahu even without it, and will level off again in two to three weeks as the cloud dissipates. That is the way of the world: that is the nature of Israelis.
Only Gaza will remain. We must not be deluded: Hamas is working on the next attack, which could happen tomorrow morning. From its point of view, nothing is over. Israel has vowed not to allow that to happen, but it will not be able to use every incident, nor the delay in returning deceased hostages, as a pretext to resume full-scale fighting. President Trump is enamored with the deal he achieved, and he will not let it unravel easily. This is not only the personal guarantee he gave: it is the prestige, and it is next year’s Nobel Prize.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers carry the coffins of deceased hostages. Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
Israel needs to push in the opposite direction — toward implementing the deal. Advance the disarmament and the reconstruction, and above all the establishment of an alternative authority in the Strip. That will allow Israel to join the larger regional vision Trump discussed in the Knesset. It is in Israel’s hands. So too are the internal healing and unity. Entering an election year does not bode well. Still, this year’s Simchat Torah felt especially joyful. Let us hope it points the way to a new path.
