I was coming back from Jerusalem on Friday morning by train. When I got to my station, I had to navigate a staircase down and a staircase up, not easy at my age with a suitcase. My husband, who is even older than me, had his own suitcase to deal with. I took a deep breath, and then, suddenly, the bag was lifted. I looked up in surprise. A battle-weary young soldier carrying an enormous backpack of his own, picked up my suitcase like it was a feather and ignoring my half-hearted protests, carried it down, then carried it up another flight. “Thank you so much. Not just for this, for everything you are doing.” I told him as I studied his beautiful young face, thinking of the family waiting at home for him and the battles still ahead. I gave him and his family my blessing for a safe return and the end of the war.

And ever since then, I can’t get him out of my head. His youth. His beauty. His gentlemanly kindness. The way his parents brought him up. He is a metaphor for everything that I love about this country and its people. I love him. I love our soldiers and their families. Really. It’s the love of family.

How we all want this terrible war to be over already! But the bottom line is this: Hamas is refusing to lay down its arms. This week, with their arms, they killed two soldiers in a fierce battle in northern Gaza – Border Police undercover officer Neta Yitzchak Kahane and IDF soldier Ido Voloch.

Meanwhile our enemies in Egypt and Qatar continue to plot on how to keep Hamas in power (a hostage release deal that includes a five-year ceasefire (so they can rearm and reinvade). In your dreams! And many on the Left continue to aid the enemy by putting up what I have taken to calling “surrender posters” about the hostages. They have absolutely no point whatsoever, except to sway public opinion towards giving in to disastrous Hamas demands.

Israel Today reports that over the weekend senior IDF officers issued the following statement: “Every time we return to the same point – a decision must be made, either we destroy Gaza or we withdraw. The blood of our soldiers must not be spilled in vain!” Israeli soldiers are willing and ready to fight to the end. But they are not willing to sit in a dangerous situation while politicians bicker over inadequate diplomatic solutions.

DECIDE ALREADY! Bomb the hell out of them, and let our beautiful soldiers, the future of our country, come home safely.

In the wake of the arrest of a terrorist cell that manufactured rockets and drones on Jordanian territory which received assistance from Hamas, the Jordanian Minister of the Interior outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, banning its activities throughout the country. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. What took them so long?

According to Channel 12, some 36,000 Gazans have emigrated since October 7. Now only another two million to go! This week, according to the claims of a prominent Gazan, hundreds left today through Ramon Airport for France and other countries as part of France’s program for “academics at risk.” Yesss. France is importing professors and scholars from Gaza! Thank you, Macron. Enjoy them.

In a speech this week, head of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, called Hamas “sons of dogs” and demanded they release the hostages, hand over their weapons, and relinquish power in the Gaza Strip. I suppose he thinks Israel is going to hand that power over him, that murderous stooge…

I cannot figure out the dangerous game President Trump is playing by negotiating with Iran over its nuclear weapons. Israel is getting too many mixed signals from him. We are hoping his most naïve-sounding declarations about coming to an agreement the mullahs is simply a ploy to put the murderous Iranian regime off-guard preceding a decisive attack to take out their centrifuges. Anything else would be folly Israel can ill afford.

But also this week the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals in the liquefied natural gas sector, which, among other things, helps finance the Houthis and their activities. The Iranian Foreign Ministry responded: “This indicates the aggressive nature of the US towards the Iranians, which is inconsistent with advancing negotiations for a nuclear agreement.”

Israel continues to advance in Gaza. A subscriber to Abu Ali sent a video

showing the demolition of buildings in the Shaboura neighborhood in Rafah a few days ago. According to him, the bulldozer operators are refusing to take breaks and insist on working non-stop to get as much work done as possible: “The soldiers – both regular and reservists – as well as the volunteers, are putting their heart and soul into wiping evil off the face of the earth.”

It looks like the warehouses in Gaza are finally getting low. The marketplaces are pretty empty these days. Trump’s offhand: “Be good to Gaza” is a sign that American pressure is once again putting Israel’s resolve to the test. According to Israel Today, Israeli leaders have reportedly agreed on a new outline for distributing aid to Gaza in collaboration with American contractors. “The outline includes a shift from a wholesale to a retail system, with direct distribution to families in defined humanitarian spaces. Foreign workers will distribute the aid under IDF security, with precise registration of the recipients of the aid and the quantities.” It is vital for Israel to prevent supplies from once again becoming significant source of income for the Hamas terrorist organization, funding the war.

The huge explosion in the Bandar Abbas port in Iran has killed and injured hundreds. Israel claims no involvement. Apparently, the explosion was related to a shipment of ammonium perchlorate (used for missile fuel) that arrived from China and was supposed to help replenish the Iranian missile system after Iran’s major missile attacks on Israel during the war (“True Promise 1 and 2”). It wanted more explosions. It got them.

The US continues to batter the Houthis, who continue to fire, without success, rockets in our direction. It’s an inconvenience we hope will soon be over. Thank you America!

Ten workers from India were apparently lured to the West Bank by Palestinians with offers of work. There they were kidnapped, their passports stolen so that Arab workers could use them to enter Israel. The plot was uncovered, the Indians rescued, the passports returned. What will they think of next? Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza used to be able to enter Israel for employment, their salaries four times the amount they could earn at home. Now, thanks to Hamas, that’s all in the past.

A few days ago, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar presented a proposal to undermine Hamas’s financial assets by canceling certain series of 200 shekel bills smuggled into Gaza. The idea is to change the color of the banknote, and allow Israelis to exchange the old bills for the new ones in Israeli banks, something Hamas obviously can’t do.

I’ll end with a proper farewell to this terror-supporting, Israel-hating Pope:

Ding dong the Pope is dead, the wicked Pope, the Hamas Pope,
Ding dong the wicked Pope is dead.

Let’s hope it will be possible to find a decent, truly pious human being among the Catholic hierarchy (by no means assured!) to replace him.

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