"Dream fulfillment officers" share how Israel refined its hostage reception process, ensuring returnees find everything from their favorite cologne to gifts for their children waiting in specially prepared rooms.
Trump advocated eliminating Hamas the American way, and belatedly realized how strategic the release of the hostages is for Israel and its government. The idea conceived by Avi Dichter helped Ron Dermer bypass the “spoiler state” Qatar. Netanyahu is buying time as part of his playbook. Also: what we can learn from Hamas’ attitude toward two specific hostages.
After the deal is signed, hearts and minds will be with the families of the hostages, finally able to find some closure. But just around the corner lie no less complex challenges.
The pager operation marked a moment of closing the circle for Barnea: under his leadership, Mossad delivered a crushing blow to a threatening entity that had been feared for years, and restored to Israel the deterrence and security-intelligence prestige lost on October 7th.
On the morning of October 7, twelve tanks from Battalion 77 were on alert facing a quiet Gaza border. In a single moment, the calm shattered. For the first time, step by step, the stories emerge of the armored crews who stood for hours against thousands of terrorists, fought to the last shell and gave their lives. This is the story of the 7th Armored Brigade on the black Shabbat.
With Israeli aircraft capable of threatening every capital in the Middle East, and with the protection of Israeli security taking precedence over adherence to the international border, history will remember this war as a victory. Once the hostages return, Israel will face critical tests: demilitarizing the Gaza Strip and determining the fate of the terrorist organization Hamas.
The colorful paper chains I hung in our sukkah two years ago, and promised to take down only when the hostages came home, haven’t fallen apart with time. They remind me what can be seen through a temporary roof, beneath a sky full of stars.
How did it happen that, specifically, the country where a distinctly right-wing government stands and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is considered a devoted Israel supporter, placed the Gaza war at the top of the public agenda?
"The border is breached, and nobody really deals with it! The authorities' disregard is a disgrace. That we haven't been hurt yet – it's a miracle. But the possibility that this will turn on us at any moment is tangible."
When the newspaper headline, just one day before October 7, warned of expected protests at the Simchat Torah celebrations in Tel-Aviv with the title “Simchat Torah War,” a war did indeed come, only of a very different kind.