We live in a time when miracles are so commonplace, we accept them without wonder. Take the terrorist from Shechem with his powerful explosive backpack walking into south Tel Aviv, with no one the wiser, and then, instead of detonating his catastrophic bomb in the middle of a crowded area of coffee shops and stores, instead blowing himself up on an almost deserted street, moderately injuring only one unfortunate Israeli on his way home from work on his scooter. Obviously, that wasn’t the terrorist’s plan, but it was God’s plan that the bomb being carried make the carrier its only casualty.

Now Zaka can sweep up the human remains all over the street and flush them down the toilet, safe in the knowledge there is nothing holy there to honor.

Still, for those of us who lived through the Intifadas and exploding martyrs, it was a chilling reminder of who our enemies are and of what they are capable, lest we forget.

Instead of wisely denying any connection, the military wing of Hamas has proudly accepted responsibility, in cooperation with the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, for this attack. In fact, they are promising that

suicide attacks will return to the scene in Israeli territory. This would be very convenient for Iran, who no doubt sent this person. If it had worked out, it would be just their modus vivendi. Kill innocent civilians, but claim ignorance, so as not to suffer any consequences. Hezbollah and Hamas are also capable of carrying this out. Both are Iranian puppets, so the buck ends in Iran.

Abu Ali views it positively: “Now that Hamas has accepted responsibility for an attack of the most terrible kind that the Jihad industry has to offer –suicide attacks aimed at harming the civilian population – Israel needs to leverage this acceptance of responsibility in front of the Western audience and remind them (because many of them have forgotten) that Hamas is an Islamic terrorist organization like ISIS. Hamas, in the midst of conducting so-called negotiations for a ceasefire which has the whole world looking over our shoulders, is nevertheless proud to accept official responsibility for this terrible act.”

Abu Ali thinks: “We should make sure that Hamas now pays the price in world public opinion. Hamas spared us the need to prove it was involved. The military arm admitted to it proudly.”

Nobody in the West will care, my friend Abu Ali. I have no doubt that the Hamas supporters there are going to tie themselves into moral pretzels to justify such a despicable attempted terror attack. But if they don’t condemn it, I hope they realize that they are inviting such attacks on themselves. Because unlike Israel, which has carefully monitored borders and a fence, the West has these people freely roaming around their towns and cities at will. Once suicide bombings again become justifiable and acceptable, the West is in as much, if not more, trouble than Israel. Only by a loud, fierce, and unequivocal condemnation of such tactics can the West spare itself. The indiscriminate targeting of civilians – something Israel has bent over backwards to avoid even during a war against the degenerates of Hamas who embed themselves in civilian areas, must never be accepted even if the perpetrators have good excuses. Once the West accepts justifications for the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, it’s the end of their lives as they know it. I hope they realize that.

As expected the fake ceasefire “negotiations” are going nowhere. They continued in Cairo today, but the Israeli delegation went home. This is heartbreaking, because all of us want the hostages to come home. Israeli leaders suggested that the US put more effort into pressuring Hamas to actually take part in the negotiations.

Today is Tu B’Av, the Hebrew “day of love.” Centuries ago, the unmarried girls of Jerusalem would go out to the vineyards during the grape harvest and dance, hoping to catch the eye of a prospective husband. All them would wear white, to spare the poor. In modern Israel, it’s become a sort of Valentine’s Day. For me personally, it is the day I gave birth twice, to a son and six years later, a daughter.

But for wives whose husbands are still captive in Gaza, it is a day of incredible pain. Raz and Ohad Ben Ami were abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7. Raz was released in November as part of a ceasefire deal. She wrote to her husband, who remains captive:

My dearest Ohad,

It’s been an eternity since we’ve been apart, not by choice but by cruel circumstance. If it were up to us, we wouldn’t be separated for even a moment. Yet here we are, forced apart by a horrific reality for longer than we’ve ever been in our 32 years together.

You’re my soulmate, my confidant, my everything. Our conversations flow effortlessly on any topic, your patience endless as you explain things. That’s us. It’s about patience, mutual respect, and love – the very essence of our life together.

Waking up to our morning chats fill me with happiness. I see how wonderful life is with you by my side, but all this bliss was abruptly interrupted.

How can life go on when you’re not here? How is it possible that my other half has been suffering for so long, and I’m powerless to bring you home? I miss your guidance in all the important decisions we now face.

The girls miss you desperately. They’re at a crucial stage in life, facing big decisions, and they need their father.

Tomorrow night, in Tel Aviv, another love story is starting: My grandson Yotam is getting married to his lovely bride Tamar. It is not a simple time for love stories, and weddings, and family gatherings in Israel. But the Jewish people survived the centuries by knowing how to hold on to their faith and carry on. And that is what we will do, God willing. Of course, the whole family will be there. Of course we will dance, and sing, and rejoice.

I pray that it will be a quiet night, and that God will grant us a time-out from this terrible war to rejoice over the marriage of this young, smart, loving Israeli couple, both of them reservists. I pray that the good angels He has sent to guard us, the Jewish people, living in the land He gave us, will continue to do so and that one day our many enemies will see the light of truth and cease their degeneracy in the name of a non-existent deity of their own creation; an idol of hatred and war that demands the bloody sacrifice not only our children, but their own. It is an idol created in the image of the heathen god Molech centuries ago, that demanded child sacrifice as part of the worship ritual.

May this death-cult find its end soon, and may the hearts and minds of those poisoned by the endless propaganda of our enemies awaken to truth, goodness, and the love of the living God who with the story of Abraham and Isaac has made it very clear that human sacrifice is abhorrent to Him.

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