Day 247 Of The War: So Many Broken Hearts

Suddenly, in the midst of this horrible war, there was a moment of pure joy. Yesterday a  little after 1 PM, we heard that four of the hostages—one woman Noa Argamani and three men Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov and Almog Meir Jan—were released alive and in relatively good shape by the IDF. The whole of Israel was ecstatic, and we were extremely happy. It was described as a miracle, but it was clearly a courageous and complex operation. In Tel Aviv, on the beach, the lifeguard announced the good news over the loudspeaker, and the whole crowd cheered. In Dizengoff Square, people were screaming with joy.

But soon afterward we heard that one of the commanders of the operation, Arnon Zmora, was killed in action, and that civilians and that dozens were killed in Gaza amid the rescue operation, and of course 120 hostages are still in Gaza. So again, that pure joy was short-lived and immediately was mixed with sadness.

At night, I went to Kaplan. It is hard to believe that we have been going there all these months, and still there is no end in sight. The man who is responsible for the greatest calamity since the Holocaust is still there, despite the fact that most Israelis cannot stand the sight of him and turn off the radio when they hear his voice. I wonder how it feels to be so despised by so many. Lately, I’ve noticed that I really can’t listen to the speeches in Kaplan, although they are sincere, strong, and passionate.  These speeches could fill volumes of great history books, but we all know that the time has come to change history .

Today, we heard another very sad story. It transpired that Yossi Jan, the father of Almog Meir Jan, passed away several hours before his son was released. His sister said that he died from a broken heart. Since October 7 and the war that followed, Israel, and the whole region,  have been filled with people whose hearts were broken, and we don’t see how they can be mended. Hopefully, tonight Benny Gantz will announce that he is leaving this corrupt and destructive government and we could start being hopeful again.