Everyone is crying now, happy tears – that's for sure. Even Arad Nir cried on air when he broadcasted the initial footage of the meeting between the released hostage Noa Argamani and her father. Emotions were overflowing everywhere, affecting even the top presenters. Nir Dvori choked up in the studio, Almog Boker teared up, and so did Yaron Avraham. As a nation, we've recently become accustomed to receiving mainly bad news, so such a rare moment managed to shake even the most composed TV presenters.
"We had the Black Saturday [on Oct. 7], and now this is the joyful Saturday," shouted someone with a flag to the camera at one of the celebration sites reported by the channels. One by one, videos of lifeguards at the beach reporting to sunbathers about the rescue of the four hostages from Gaza flowed onto the screen, and the beachgoers, in swimsuits and with tan lines, cheered.
ערד ניר: "זה רגע שאנחנו כולנו צריכים להתייצב מאחורי צבא ההגנה לישראל ולהגיד - כל הכבוד לצה"ל!"@arad_nir pic.twitter.com/TepsoloTQZ
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) June 8, 2024
Like an unbelievable Hollywood movie, Almog, Andrey, and Shlomi descended from a military helicopter, surrounded by brave soldiers, raising their hands in the air, with citizens' joyful cheers heard in the background. We searched for it for eight months, and finally, we found it – victory. For half a day, the channel studios broadcast a victory festival; they praised the soldiers, the IDF, the Shin Bet security agency, the police, the intelligence units, and the decision-makers in the government. They cheered, applauded, hugged, and rejoiced. For a few moments, it was easy to suppress the question of where they were on Oct. 7. For one day, suddenly, everyone volunteered to take responsibility. For one day, we were in paradise.
The joy was extraordinary because it reminded us, for a moment, of everything we aspire to be. A country with an all-powerful army that knows everything and is everywhere, with an empathetic prime minister who leaves his house to meet with families of the freed hostages, with systems that work together and aren't busy undermining each other. A country where right-wingers and left-wingers dance together in the streets to "Am Yisrael Chai," an atmosphere of national pride, true unity, and strategic victory, proving to the world that we Jews do not abandon our brothers and sisters. This is the picture of victory. For a few hours, on the joyful Shabbat, we were everything we dream of being as a nation, and how emotional that made us.
דברים שקורים לך רק כשאתה מדווח מאמצע קיבוץ ורק כשאתה @OrHeller : pic.twitter.com/Z901tavTGk
— Tal Shorrer (@TalShorrer) June 8, 2024
The day started much less elegantly. It was another chapter in the saga of "We know something we can't tell you," and all the studio guests played along in this game of hints for about an hour and a half – until the news was cleared for publication.
"If we broke into the broadcast and started reporting gradually, there's probably a reason for this," Yaron Avraham dropped a major hint. Almog Boker added, "You can smile or shed a tear of excitement over what happened in the last few hours, even though we still can't tell. But I ask, don't rely on WhatsApp messages"; and Or Heller tore off the mask and said, "I can really say I'm excited – if I'm allowed to say – by the news that is about to come. We are aware of rumors and publications on WhatsApp, and we urge you to be patient and let those who need to announce it do so."
The law defines the use of inside information (in the context of publicly traded companies) to gain profits as a criminal offense with prison sentences. This is no different from what the commercial channels did - they traded in inside information, which was prohibited from publication at that time for clear reasons - just to inflate their ratings.
