A Brief Reprieve

Children of Israel Are Never Alone

Hey, beloved tribe.

What a weekend.

For 245 mornings following October 7th, we all woke up — day in and day out — to mostly horrific news. But not this past Saturday.

This past Saturday, I opened my eyes at 5:00 am and saw an electrifying headline:

IDF RESCUES 4 HOSTAGES ALIVE IN STUNNING OPERATION

I bolted upright in bed. I woke my husband to tell him and it’s a measure of how deeply we share the same homeland love that he didn’t have a trace of resentment about being woken at 5 am on a Saturday morning.

It was a glorious day. I wept steadily from morning until night in response to the various cuts of reunion footage circulating online. Of the IDF rescue mission telling the frightened male hostages they're being rescued. Of the hostages boarding the rescue helicopter that would carry them back to Israel. Of Noa Argamani reuniting with her father. Of Andrey Kozlov falling on his knees at the first sight of his mother. Of an entire beach erupting in joy when a lifeguard announces the news over an outdoor intercom.

Especially moving was the clip of Almog Meir Jan reuniting with his friends. When he walks into the room where they’ve assembled to receive him, there is the slightest cautious pause that any sensitive person would observe when they have no idea what they’ll be facing. Will he seem the same or altered? Will they need to take it gentle and slow? Will he have fierce PTSD and be frightened and overwhelmed by dozens of people running at him and grabbing him? But when he walks into the room in seemingly high spirits and approaches the nearest friend without hesitation, the whole room seems to rush him at once. They clutch him and each other, weaving a tight-knit human knot around him, embracing him and cupping the back of his head protectively, and together they jump up and down and dance and chant in unison, in Hebrew — הוא משלנו — He is ours, he is one of us, and we will never give him away!

Naturally, the U.S. media managed to make this glorious rescue sound evil. The Washington Post's headline read: More Than 200 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Hostage Raid in Gaza. NBC's headline was: Israel’s Hostage Rescue Raid in Nuseirat Left Hundreds Dead and Injured, Hamas Says. Because of course Hamas should get to write headlines and frame news stories for the American public’s mass consumption. Not to be outdone, the Associated Press headline was: How An Israeli Raid Freed 4 Hostages and Killed At Least 274 Palestinians in Gaza.

Fortunately, as far as I could tell, none of that had the slightest power to tamp down the Jewish joy that day. Because while I don’t know a single Jew who’s indifferent to Palestinian suffering, we are clear on the fact that these deaths are unequivocally the fault of the jihadists who place our hostages in the center of the densest civilian enclaves in an effort to maximize them.

If we were willing to let that tactic foreclose our rescue missions, then we would essentially be inviting Hamas to kidnap and torture as many Jews as they want, as long as they keep them in the middle of a dense residential area. We would be prioritizing the safety and the lives of their people ahead of our own, and there is no other nation in the world that would ever be expected to do that. The evident widespread confusion on this point spurred me to post, on my personal Facebook page:

I know this is going to come as a shock and wild affront to some of you, but here's a little news flash: like every other country on earth, Israel's first and foremost moral imperative is to protect her own citizens.

And yet there was some bitter mixed in with the sweet, even on Saturday.

The rescue mission has since been named “Operation Arnon” in light of the fact that the extraordinarily brave, daring, lion-hearted Yamam (National Police Counter-Terrorism Unit) commander Arnon Zamora was killed in the course of the raid.

Baruch Dayan Emet — may his loved ones be comforted among the mourners of Zion. His memory will most definitely be a blessing.

Another heart-mangling piece of news was that hostage Almog Meir Jan’s father, Yossi, passed away just hours before he would have been reunited with his child. He left this world believing his son was still in captivity and, according to his sister — Almog’s aunt — he died of grief.

Then of course, the very next day, War Cabinet member Benny Gantz resigned from his post in protest of Netanyahu’s lack of a “day after” post-war plan for Gaza and the latter’s prioritization of his own political survival over Israel’s well-being during the prosecution of this war. More broadly, Gantz, War Cabinet member Gabi Eisenkot, and their National Unity Party withdrew from Bibi’s government coalition.

This move was not without warning. Gantz had issued many an ultimatum leading up to his withdrawal. It remains to be seen whether this gamble will result in an early election in Israel, as Gantz hopes, or whether it will backfire and serve only to increase the power of the far right within Bibi’s governing coalition. Already Itamar Ben-Gvir is demanding to be added to the War Cabinet in Gantz’s place.

Finally, as of today, the U.N. Security Council endorsed Biden’s proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The vote was nearly unanimous; it passed 14-0, with only Russia abstaining. The only parties yet to agree are the only ones who matter: Israel and Hamas.

Per the New York Times, Israel’s representative to the U.N., Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, said that Israel’s goals in the war remained unchanged and that it would continue to conduct military missions to free the remaining hostages:

“We will continue until all of the hostages are returned and Hamas’s military capabilities are dismantled,” Ms. Shapir Ben-Naftaly told the Council. She said if Hamas leaders freed all hostages and turned themselves in, “not one shot would be fired.”

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Meanwhile, I know I still owe you an introduction to Rudy Rochman. I’ve tentatively scheduled that for Wednesday. There’s no nailing down a newsletter topic two days ahead in a situation this fast-moving and unpredictable, and I re-learn that reality every single time I try.

But I’ll be back with you then. In the meantime, may the euphoria of the weekend carry us through this week. Stay strong and proud and upright, and don’t hide your love for the Jewish nation.

Chazak, chazak v’nitchazek. Mir Veln Zey Iberlebn. Am Yisrael Chai.