We all want clean endings. Preferably happy ones. But the real world doesn’t work like that.
The return of the last 20 live hostages from the hell of Hamas captivity in Gaza, and the hope of the recovery of the bodies of most of those murdered; the pullback of Israeli troops; amorphous plans to disarm Hamas and replace its jihadist army with some as-yet unknown mechanism – these mark the start of a new phase as much as the end of the war that started on October 7, 2023, on the festival of Simchat Torah.
US President Donald Trump took a bold and typically idiosyncratic stand to bring about the ceasefire and release of the hostages. It could not have been done without him. He deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for the 2020 Abraham Accords, and his current efforts certainly add to that merit and bring with them the possibility of expanding those accords to other Arab and Muslim countries.
Trump’s address to the Knesset on Monday was characteristically hyperbolic as he declared: “This is not only the end of a war, this is the end of an age of terror and death, and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God… This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.”
Yet, this is not a peace deal. We can’t even be sure it’s a ceasefire. There are no guarantees that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, et al, will lay down their arms. The Houthis in Yemen, unless they receive the full “Trump treatment,” are likely to carry on sporadic rocket attacks on Israel and international shipping.
We can expect – and must plan for – a surge of Hamas-backed Palestinian terror attacks in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Delegitimization and demonization of Israel won’t end. And antisemitism will not just disappear; it never has, although now and again throughout the millennia it has been better hidden.
THERE ARE also serious internal divisions. When US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law and mediator Jared Kushner addressed the crowd in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square on Saturday night, they were greeted with the rhythmic chant: “Thank you, Trump.” But, embarrassingly, when Witkoff tried to praise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in the deal, the crowd booed.
This is “October 6 thinking” – the splits that so weakened Israeli society that it helped Hamas choose the timing for its assault. We cannot afford to return to those days.
October 7 happened on Netanyahu’s watch and he is not free of blame, but he also deserves credit for some of the incredible successes that followed. The Pager Campaign that knocked out the Hezbollah top cadre, and the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his successors, have given Lebanon a chance of domestic peace and removed the most immediate threat from Israel’s northern border.
It also shook the region enough for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to fall. And June’s 12-day “Rising Lion” war-within-a-war – with US help – removed the immediate danger of a nuclear Iran and its ballistic missiles, making the whole world safer.
Even the targeted attack on Hamas leaders in Doha in September, while it missed its goal, sent an important message that the regime in Qatar (and Turkey) could not host terrorists with impunity. It helped apply pressure on Hamas.
The soldiers who fought – and those who sacrificed their lives – played a significant role in creating the conditions that made the ceasefire possible. Spare a thought for them, their families, and friends.
And as we collectively embrace the former hostages, keep in mind the victims of terror whose families are forced to see murderers being set free. For thousands of Israelis, this week marks the move from trauma to post-trauma.
Naming last war as part of healing process
STRANGELY, THE war itself does not yet have one name but many monikers, including: “Swords of Iron,” “Tkuma” (Revival), and “The October 7 War.” Similarly, in 1982, the name Operation Peace for the Galilee did not stick to what morphed into The Lebanon War, and then into The First Lebanon War. It’s never a good sign when you have to number wars.
There have been so many operations against Hamas since it took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, following the complete Israeli withdrawal two years earlier, that it is hard to recall all the names.
The 1967 Six Day War – named because of its incredible swift success – was followed by the War of Attrition, which offers a sobering perspective. Not long after that, the Yom Kippur War was launched by Egypt and Syria in 1973 on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
That the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the Israel-Hamas War began with surprise attacks on Israel on Jewish holy days is not a coincidence. Although it will take time to process what we have been through in these last two years, one thing is already obvious. We are in an age of religious wars, jihadists against Jews and Christians.
Even Greta Thunberg and the Global Sumud Flotilla – the armada of ships carrying no aid but tons of ammunition for anti-Israel propaganda – carefully timed its arrival to coincide with Yom Kippur.
The terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester, which resulted in the deaths of two Jewish British Jews on Yom Kippur, was part of this war.
More than anything, the way streets and campuses around the world have been flooded with “pro-Palestinian” protesters reflects this. Banners about replacing the Jewish state “From the River to the Sea,” and the need to “globalize the Intifada” serve as the writing on the wall.
As Seth Mandel wrote in Commentary: “Brief periods of calm while the enemy decides when next to carry out mass murder is not peace, it is captivity. Peace is when the enemy cannot simply decide to carry out mass murder.
“The European leaders’ approach to ‘peace’ was, essentially: Please stop fighting for a few minutes so I can get reelected. The shame of France’s Emmanuel Macron, of the UK’s Keir Starmer, of Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, and others cannot be understated.”
It is disconcerting that these same leaders are now rushing to take a part in the Trump initiative, as seen in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit this week. In this Orwellian world, while Israelis are accused of “colonialism” for living in their ancient homeland, the governments of countries that did colonialize the Middle East and elsewhere want a second chance at dividing it up.
HAMAS NEVER had Palestinian well-being as its goal but the destruction of Israel, the Jewish state
The pro-Palestinian (i.e., anti-Israel) protests began as the Hamas invasion and mega-atrocity took place. Never forget that this war started when Hamas slaughtered 1,200 people and abducted 251; raping, torturing, looting, and burning homes with families inside. The protests abroad began as the number of Israeli dead mounted, before the operation against the terrorists in Gaza had been launched in response.
As Spiked chief political editor Brendan O’Neill put it, “October 7 confirmed that Israel faces an existential threat on its borders. October 8 confirmed that the West faces an existential threat within its borders. A cultural establishment, a liberal elite, a Left and an Islamist mob have turned their backs on the virtues of civilization and fallen under the spell of barbarism. Israel is winning the war against the fascists that invaded its lands two years ago.
“We, alas, are not winning the war for the soul of the West. We struggle even to admit we are in such a war. Two years on, the good ship Israel has been steadied while the West still pitches on the high seas of counter-Enlightenment.”
Simchat Torah this week, the second Simchat Torah since that dark day, provided consolation. In my Jerusalem neighborhood, as elsewhere, the singing and dancing with Torah scrolls spilled out onto the streets and combined with joy at the return of the live hostages hours before the start of the holiday.
I don’t know what will be tomorrow, but I’m certain that in Jewish homes in Israel and around the world, candles will continue to be lit on Shabbat and religious holidays. There will be light and hope. Simchat Torah, like Yom Kippur, will always have an added layer of significance – but this, too, is Jewish continuation: a combination of soul-searching, remembrance, and celebration.