Reflecting Thoughts One Month After the Ceasefire
October 13, 2025, was a day of jubilation in Israel. That was the day when, almost two years since the October 7th Massacre, a ceasefire was signed that allowed Israeli and foreign hostages, held under Hamas’ brutality, return home to their families.
But I would like to add, with a heavy heart, that what Israel has signed up for is a Pyrrhic victory. We gained so much; yet we also lost much.
We lost our hegemony. We suddenly found ourselves under the mercy of a power-hungry Donald Trump, who is interested in making multi-million dollar deals with Saudi Arabia, and who is interested in strengthening ties with Qatar and Turkey. All under Israel’s expense. Who’s going to tell the US that Qatar and Turkey support the Muslim Brotherhood? Who’s going to tell the US that any time they are involved in world affairs, they make more problems than solutions?
Suddenly, being the 51st state is not a kind of fantasy.
Israelis has also lost so much internally. Even though we proved to have an immense sense of brotherhood during the first months of the war, as time went on, that brotherhood fell apart. We found out that the ultra-Orthodox community does not want to take part in the war, a war that proved to be critical for the existence of the only Jewish state in the world. Apparently, the ultra-Orthodox may be Jews, but they don’t want a Jewish state. And this rift between the general Israeli population will take decades to overcome.
Israelis also lost their social cohesion. This is what happens when you live under a government that does not care about anyone’s interests but their own. Never have I been ashamed of my own country’s government on how it acted during the war. Even the question of bringing hostages home was very politically flammable.
I would like to add that Israel gained some things, region-wise. It succeeded in assassinating Hamas and Hezbollah leaders; it went on a beeper-bombing mission that left the world with wide mouths; Assad’s Syria is no more; and it confronted Iran with its irrational behavior.
And yet we feel broken.
