Learning how to smile and laugh again
Today, the 740th day of captivity and the beginning of this horrible war on a day that no one will ever forget, October 7, 2023, will be my last daily update of the war and hostage crisis. (a separate blog that I have posted daily since the beginning of the war. I will continue writing my posts on substack and my blog in The Times of Israel)
I have been posting updates since the war broke out and felt that it was my mission to help keep English speakers informed with real and current news out of Israel. It came with personal and emotional costs that I have been willing to pay because of its importance. I said that I would continue this as long as there were hostages still in Gaza. I will continue to send out periodic updates when there is news about the rest of the hostages and we all sincerely hope that our horribly failed government will not drag us back to war.
We are happy, thrilled that all of the living hostages have all come home, yet there are still 21 (16-17 as of later today, hopefully) bodies of hostages in Gaza and we are painfully aware that some of them may never be found. I am still deeply involved in the struggle to return all of the hostages but I feel that my mission has come to its needed end and for me to begin my own healing process. My yellow hostage pins stay on my shirt, as does the hostage dog tag around my neck and I am continuing to wear my hostage shirts and have the hostage banners on the front of my house. and the bumper stickers covering the back of my car. Our struggle has not ended and we must continue to support the hostage families who have not yet been able to bring their loved ones to a proper burial.
I am so proud of my brother, Dr. Gershon Baskin for the incredible role he has played to bring about the end of the war and the return of all of the living hostages and the ongoing return of the bodies of the dead. Without his never ending drive and devotion throughout these two miserable years, we would not be here. In the coming weeks, his efforts and success will come out completely and it will be revealed and recognized that his critical part was the driving force that brought us to this moment in time. When things calm down a bit, I will begin a campaign to support Gershon to be nominated for the Israel Prize.
Today, after 2 years of ongoing agony following the massacre of October 7, no Israeli will ever be the same. October 7 changed the DNA or the country and every one who lives here. We have been living in trauma since then and can only now begin the healing process, both on the personal level and the national level. We have a country to rebuild and work towards creating what we know Israel can be and not what we were on October 6.
Our deepest, most enshrined ethics were tested and the people of Israel (most of us) came through and proved that the words ״כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה״ – Kol Yisrael arevim zeh lezeh meaning “All of Israel are responsible one for another” is an expression coined by the Sages, and its original meaning is that every Jew bears responsibility for the observance of the commandments of his fellow. This responsibility has a moral meaning and also practical halachic consequences. In modern times the expression has become common with a different meaning, according to which every Jew is responsible for the safety and well-being of his fellow.
It is also known as ערבות הדדית Arvut Hadadit meaning Mutual responsibility is a principle of communal accountability, in which every member of the community is responsible for the safety and well-being of his fellow, and in return every member receives the support of the collective. This concept, which appears in the Jewish expression “All of Israel are responsible one for another,” receives contemporary expressions in volunteer organizations, cooperatives, and the strengthening of social cohesion.
And the second and no less important ethic we have all had engraved on our moral code is פדיון שבויים Pidyon Shvu’im, the redemption of prisoners (hostages) which was deemed the most important mitzvah by both Ramban and Rambam. Most of the country fully understood this ethic and embraced it fully.
Unfortunately, our government and prime minister did not. The government abandoned the entire country and continues to operate as though it is still October 6. Our criminally indicted Prime Minister abandoned the country and made every decision based on what was good for him politically before considering what was good and needed for the country and the people. The worst thing that this government did was to turn the national crisis of the hostages into a political issue and associate it with anti government protests. This was to serve their own interests and attempt to divert the responsibility for the crisis, the October 7 massacre, everything that led up to it, and the mismanagement of the war. None of this will be forgiven or forgotten.
There will be a State Commission of Inquiry that will investigate and discover everything that led to October 7, both to help us make sure that it can never happen again and to determine who was responsible, both morally and legally. The establishment of this commission should have been a natural outcome of October 7 and would have if not for having a Prime Minister who knows that he will be found responsible for so many of the failures leading up to October 7 and all that came after. This man, who claimed to be the savior of the Jewish People (not just the State of Israel) and who believed his legacy would bring about cities, universities, buildings and roads named after him, will go down in the history books as the worst prime minister in our history, and the most dangerous person in Israel who did more damage to the State than any of our enemies in our history.
The war, hopefully is over, all of the living hostages are home and we can now begin to create our new normal which will not and cannot be anything like our normal of October 6. But our struggles have not ended. We must stay with the hostage families until the last hostage comes home. We must demand and fight for the establishment of the State Commission of Inquiry and we must fight for early elections to bring us new leadership that will have to work so very hard to prove that they are worthy of the new Israel as we are are worthy of having leaders who think of the country and the people as their first and only priority, leaders who will not base their entire platform and operate on the notion that ‘we must forever live by the sword’, leaders who will work day and night to bring us to a new reality of peace and a new Middle East where the interests of our neighbors are our shared interests and that we can no longer believe that our 100 year conflict can be managed. It cannot, and October 7 should be the loudest wake up call to that fact. The conflict must be solved. There are an equal amount of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and neither of us is going anywhere. The only solution is for each of us to be able to live in peace is when each people can celebrate their national ambitions, needs and goals for territorial expression and that can only be achieved with a two state solution.
Today, with what we believe is the end of the war, very few of us know how to feel after two horrendous years of fear, destruction, death, hostages, anxieties, pain, and the list goes on. We are so very happy that all the living hostages are finally home with their families (and every single one has become part of the greater family of the people of Israel), we are in pain for the hostage families who are ‘fortunate’ enough to be able to bury their loved ones and even more in pain for those who are still waiting. We have been in trauma and surrounded by trauma.
We know it’s now alright to smile and laugh without guilt. We have to remember and relearn how to do that. I can now wash dishes and not think that I am using more water than the hostages get in a week.
We’re not yet able to internalize the new day and how we are supposed to act and even greet people. Our wish for better days remains but now we can act to bring it forward and create those better days. As the writer Peter Drucker once wrote “”There is only one sure way to predict the future. Create it! “
Now is the time for us lovers of the real Israel to take our power, our endurance, our strength that we have shown for the last two years and create a better future. We will only be able to do that with new leadership, some of whom will come from the pillars of strength that have shone during this time. The strength of this dear country is not housed in the Knesset and it certainly doesn’t come from this government which is the furthest thing in the world from being the representative of the people. Now is the time for hope but it must be accompanied by action and that action is in the hands of us, the people of Israel. Just as it happened since the beginning of the war when all saw the paralysis of this failed government, the civilian actions saved us, brought us together and showed the strength, sturdiness, steadfastness and ability to overcome and this is what is going to bring about the New Israel that we all dream about.
Lonny Baskin – October 15, 2025
