Yihiye Tov – All Will Be Good – Part II

Two years ago, just a few weeks after October 7, I was in Israel and penned this blog about David Broza’s iconic song, Yihiye Tov – All Will Be Good.  No hostages had been returned yet, my son had just survived intense combat along the Gaza border, we believed our friends’ son, Omer Neutra, was alive being held hostage by Hamas, and I sat in my safe room in Ashkelon listening to the planes and artillery from Gaza and wrote a blog about peace and a quick end to the war.

I guess I was being optimistic, though nobody thought it would be two years for this war to end and the hostages returned.  Certainly not I.

Today, as I again sit in my apartment having just returned from watching and celebrating the 20 living hostages being released from captivity, I again found myself thinking of the words to that song and their relevance to the events of the day.

הליצן נהיה למלך הנביא נהיה ליצן

 The clown has become a king, the prophet has become a clown

This one almost writes itself….is further explanation needed?  I have not been shy in voicing my opinion for years about Donald Trump.  I abhor much of what he says and does, especially domestically.  While there might exist some reasonable objective hidden in his policies, his heavy-handed approach and attack on our civil liberties – most significantly, his personal weaponization of the Department of Justice and attack on our independent judiciary – leaves myself and many others scared for the future of our democracy.

Having said that, as I have expressed at the time of him green-lighting the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – he deserves all the credit and kavod – honor – for what he, and nobody else, was able to accomplish.  For two years I have believed that negotiations with Hamas would never succeed because they are not a rationale state-actor.  They are crazy, some would say.  Objectives and redlines which would normally push a government to make a reasonable decision for the betterment of those people they purport to represent simply do not apply to them.  The number one example is their utter indifference in using their own people as human shields with the only goal as increasing the number of dead and therefore pressure on and public opinion turning on Israel.

So how does one deal with or negotiate with such a party?  You out-crazy them.  Only one who likewise is motivated by objectives and goals outside what most would consider “normal” is able to get through to the other “crazy” in this equation.  Hamas knows full-well that Israel’s biggest handicap is its adherence, despite what some would say, to the laws of war, proportionality, necessity and respect for all human life.  I am not so sure Hamas feels as comfortable with Trump adhering to those same standards.  When Trump says, “take the deal, or else” Hamas truly does not know what the “else” is.  As Trump himself said today in the Knesset if the U.S. had to go to war, “we won’t be politically correct.”  And when Trump speaks of flattening Gaza, kicking everyone out, and creating a big, beautiful Mar-a-Gaza, they just might not be willing to call his bluff.  So yes, I think his willingness to not “do things like other politicians or leaders” is a benefit here.  You out-crazy the crazy and make a deal.  For that, this clown turned want-to-be king, deserves all the credit in the world.

And as far as the “prophet becomes the clown,” we have Netanyahu who for more than a decade preached that he, and only he, could guarantee Israel’s safety humiliated with the success of Hamas’ attack and the two-years of war since.  Now public inquiries into the military and intelligence failures in the months and years leading to October 7 will hopefully begin in earnest and we will see if history will judge him as a prophet or a clown.  I know many have very strong opinions on both sides of that question.

 אני מביט למעלה ורואה מטוס חטוף

 And I look up and see a hijacked plane

Broza sings in the late 70’s when this song was released of all the hijacked airplanes of that era, most famously the hijacking of the Air France plane to Entebbe and the IDF’s ultimate miraculous rescue operation of its Jewish and Israeli passengers.  Who knew all these years later the word used, חטוף, meaning hijacked or hostage would become such a commonly used word.  I can tell you this, my basic Hebrew vocabulary didn’t include חטוף before this tragedy began.  May we never have to use this word again.

אנשים חיים במתח מחפשים סיבה לנשום

ובין שנאה לרצח מדברים על השלום 

 People live with stress looking for a reason to breathe

And between hatred and murder they speak about peace

Unfortunately, this verse sung all those years ago is all too apropos today.  Israeli society has lived with the stress knowing that as long as its fellow citizens remained in Hamas’ terror tunnels, literally struggling to breathe, that they too could not fully breathe free.  Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the eloquent mother of kidnapped and murdered Nova Festival attendee, Hersh, has written and spoken often about her desire to simply breathe, and collectively for Israeli society to be able to breathe freely again.  The resiliency of Israelis, and the Jewish people, seems to have no bounds, and after every catastrophe and attempt to wipe us out, our ability to move forward and speak of peace endures.

 אני מביט מהחלון אולי יגיע יום חדש

 I look out the window perhaps a new day will come

As the sun sets outside my window on this historical day, we still wait for news of the return of all the deceased hostages, including Omer.  Unless and until that occurs, the fight continues, but for once in more than two years, we can finally think: אולי יגיע יום חדש – perhaps a new day will come.

I spent the morning at the Sha’ar HaNegev junction near S’derot.  For those familiar with Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, they have the same set up there, with about 1/50th the amount of people.  As we watched the live hostages release on the big screen, cheered, danced, and even did a l’chaim in celebration,  knowing that the exact location we were physically standing was the sight of death that horrible morning and watching the pure joy today in people’s faces and voices was moving.  I just wrote about my meaningful visit to the United Arab Emirates before arriving in Israel, and after today’s events, I remain even more hopeful that new day will come.

May the days ahead continue to bring good news, the end to this war, the return of all our deceased hostages and Shalom – Salaam – Peace.