What truly defines the success of our nation?

There are many times that I write and I put down on paper what I have found to represent large parts of our society. Today, I am writing about my little microcosm, but I do believe it is what so many are feeling.

Today is the first full day of the ceasefire with Iran after an incredibly tense and life threatening 12 days when 28 people actually did lose their lives. But today is more than that. We are on day 628 of the longest war in our history and 628 days from the day that changed the face, heart and soul of our country and has left 50 of our brothers and sister in an unending hellish captivity.

Every single day of these last 12 days and with every missile alert and sirens blaring, besides making sure that my family and our 3 dogs got safely and quickly to our safe room, my thoughts went to our hostages and to their families. The families, like us were also running to the protected spaces to stay alive in order to continue their fight to bring their loved ones home at the end of this madness. But their thoughts went so far beyond that. They knew that they were stuck, not just on October 7 when their lives stopped and the world stopped turning for them. They were stuck because they knew that what had been a minor subject for this government, forever on its back burner, the furthest back that a burner could be, had now turned into a non-subject, something that none of them had to talk about or defend their total lack of action on behalf of the hostages. It was wiped off the front pages of all the Israeli press in every language, which is unforgivable, no matter what else is going on in the country. The hostages must be on the front page every day until the last hostage is brought home. And when the news day has nothing to say about the hostages because the government is doing nothing, that is exactly what should be printed in bold letters on the front page “The government is involved in other matters and is doing nothing for the hostages”.

No one could go to demonstrations, people were scared to drive to TV news studios in the event of a missile attack, even if there was a odd chance that the TV studio would speak to them about the hostages. The hostages just weren’t front page news. There was some small blurbs and some short interviews with family members but they were minor. So, for these very long and scary 12 days, the families continued to fear for the lives and bodies of their loved ones left behind to rot in Gaza, and for this period of time, they felt less than useless. If they hadn’t broken down before now (and I’m sure they have broken down multiple times over the last 20 months), they were sure to break down now.

And now back to my little microcosm. I am consumed by the hostage crisis and have been since October 7. It injects itself into everything that I do and think and plan. When I am washing dishes and the water is flowing, I think about how much water I am using and know that it is more than the living hostages are getting in a week. When I make a doctor’s appointment, I know that they cannot see a doctor or get proper medical care and their physical, mental and medical status is deteriorating every single second in their captivity.

Today, after these last 12 days, I felt broken, more than usual. I thought that under normal circumstances (there’s nothing normal about any of our circumstances, but this is our abnormal normal), following a war, there would be a great feeling of relief, of gratitude that we got through it in one piece (we who were lucky enough to get through it in one piece, not the thousands whose lives have been turned upside down by the loss of their housing or the deaths of their loved ones), that we would be able to go on with our lives and that our summer plans could continue as though nothing happened, just as our obtuse Transportation Minister stated.

But we are far from that luxury of being able to feel those things. Yes, there is a ceasefire with Iran that hopefully will become permanent; yes, the airport has reopened to full activity and some of the airlines are already coming back; yes, the school system is back up and running, and people can go back to work, not just those who work in war necessary jobs. Yes, a lot of normal things have come back but nothing is normal. We still have a war going on in Gaza and 7 of our young people were killed there unnecessarily just yesterday on the day of the beginning of the ceasefire. Our hostages are still there, rotting and dying and our so-called leaders are making statements about them that have no basis in fact or reason. Just more of their blah, blah, blah. There is no negotiating team going to Cairo or Doha or anywhere else because our self-serving prime minister won’t do a thing about that if it doesn’t mesh with his own personal political game of survival.

So, today has been a low day for me, and I imagine it has been for others. Instead of a measured feeling of jubilation, I just felt overcome, numb, desperate, with the knowledge that our fight goes on and the absurdity that we have to fight our own government and prime minister to get them to do the right thing that should have been done 20 months ago; to fight with those who bear the most responsibility for the hostages being in captivity in the first place, yet shirk all responsibility and instead, deliberately turned it from an issue of national import of the first degree to something totally political.

I feel low because I know that there are just 2 people on earth who can end the war and get the hostages home, immediately; Netanyahu and Trump. The former will only do it if it suits his political survival and rebirth and the latter if it suits his plans and dreams towards winning the Nobel Peace prize. If Netanyahu feels like his ‘successes’ in Iran coupled with Lebanon and Syria will push him forward in the polls and secure his re-election, we will see him call for snap elections and about a month after, claim that we reached his ‘total victory’ in Gaza, make a deal to end the war and bring the hostages home in time for him to use it in his election campaign. He has deliberately not detailed what ‘total victory’ means in Gaza so he alone can determine when that elusive goal is reached and it will only be reached when it suits him best. But the current polls that immediately followed the ceasefire show that although he increased his electoral base, still comes in very far from having the ability to put together a government. I’m very happy about that but very low that he will still not see the personal benefit of bringing home the hostages.

And I am most low because we have a government devoid of the most important values that Israel is built upon: value of life, redeeming prisoners, leaving no one behind, life being more important than land, a moral code of behavior, acceptance of the other, and so many more. Netanyahu and his ilk (most of the government) are despicable in the absence of all of these values and mostly despicable because they don’t even care. Self-interests overtake those sacred values that we are all raised upon, and we the people of Israel are left to pay the price, with the first ones to pay being the 50 hostages left in Gaza and the 41 who were killed in captivity and could have and should have been redeemed alive, and of course, the families of all the hostages who live in hell in this never-ending day of October 7.

We are a people and a nation of hope. We hope for peace, we hope that when our children are born, that there won’t be a need for them to serve in the army by the time they reach draft age, we hope for leadership that is worthy of the people, we hope for good education, good health care, we hope for the end to this unending war, and we hope for our hostages to come home. And our greatest hope is that the prime killer of hope will either do the right thing, even it is for the wrong reasons or be speedily replaced by someone who will restore the values and the hopes of the future of the nation and bring home our hostages now!

I will close with a message that is totally foreign to our present leaders but hopefully with be the central belief and motivation of our next generation of leaders (may they arrive quickly).

To quote a brilliant person and a never defeated optimist, my brother:
Peace is not a piece of paper signed by leaders; it’s what’s taught in schools, spoken in homes, and practiced in daily life.” Gershon Baskin

“I’ve never met them,
But I miss them.
I’ve never met them,
but I think of them every second.
I’ve never met them,
but they are my family.
BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”