I’ve been sick for a few days. Probably the change in weather. But today, I started taking some antibiotics, and suddenly feel so much better.

It’s a metaphor for the situation in my little country. These are the things I was reading about today, all of them so hopeful, so healing.

An article in Ynet by photographer Micha Brickman on the photo exhibit he is preparing on Kibbutz Be’eri, perhaps the hardest hit of all the Gaza Envelope communities.

Given permission to photograph Be’eri a week after the massacre, his documentation of the burned, looted, devastated village in which degenerate Hamas murderers gleefully acted out their barbarian fantasies, stands as silent testimony to the plans of our enemies for our entire country. And now, one year later, Micha has gone back to Be’eri, and captured quite a different picture, images of a brave resilient, talented people picking up the pieces and going forward, as Jews have always done.

Most the residents of Be’eri have returned from their temporary dwellings to take up residence once again in their rebuilt homes. Yonit Or and her husband Dror were both murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, but their dreams and projects are being carried into the future by a dedicated staff.

In “Eyunah – A Simple Story” the carpentry workshop founded by designer Yonit, carpenters Doron, Motti, Itik, and Shiloh is back to building their unique cabinets and furniture, as a large portrait of Yonit sits on the wall looking down at them. Not far away, Be’eri’s renown cheese factory, founded by Yonit’s husband, Dror, once again has filled refrigerators and shelves with huge rounds which worker Tom is getting ready for delivery. A wall mural shows Dror busy at work making cheese.

At the large Be’eri Printing firm, which was almost deserted a year ago, the printing presses can now be heard at a distance, busily filling orders, “stronger than ever,” say the workers, who smile at the cameras.

But perhaps most inspiring are the growing fields of Ayelet and Manny Goddard, both murdered a year ago. While Ayelet was buried in Be’eri, Manny’s remains are still being held hostage by Hamas. The photographer’s first meeting with the Goddard’s son Gal was in front of his parents’ home a year ago, when he was still searching for signs of what had happened to them. Now, a year later, Gal stands in his parents’ enormous fields, which he has plowed into neat rows, and in which he is busy planting potatoes. Of this image, the photographer says “There couldn’t be a stronger or more optimistic picture.”

Another sign of renewal are the IDF trucks taking down the enormous walls put up a year ago along the main roads adjacent to the northern border because the threat of anti-tank attacks has disappeared. How wonderful!

Another cause for rejoicing is the new laser system developed in Israel against missiles and drones called Magan Or.  Developed by Elbit,  it has been tested and is the most advanced system in the world.  Israel is so confident it is effective, it is investing two billion dollars in developing and expanding it.  Excellent!

The Kamal Adwan “Hospital” in Gaza, which a Gazan ambulance driver admits on camera to being a hotbed of Hamas terrorist activity, and that ambulances are used to transport terrorists and ammunition, is being cleared of terrorists in the hundreds. I’m sure the Gazan whining is loud.

Major General Israel Ziv, a loud critic of the government, has suddenly admitted at long last in remarks to TV channel Kan 11, that he was wrong to call for a diplomatic solution in Lebanon. “I pushed for a settlement in Lebanon, but I made a big mistake. I did not correctly assess Hezbollah’s preparations and intentions to make war on Israel. Our ground operation there is essential.”

Since launching the ground operation in southern Lebanon, the IDF has found numerous Hezbollah bunkers and bases stocked and prepared for a massive invasion of the Galilee. Today, speaking from a Hezbollah bunker in southern Lebanon, Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi said; “From here they could go on a raid into the State of Israel. We caught it in time and these infrastructures must not be repeated here for generations.”

Before you get caught up reading about “deals” ostensibly taking place with Hamas over our kidnapped, you should know that they haven’t changed their negotiating position even though they are in no position to negotiate anything. Israel could flatten Gaza tomorrow and kill every, last one of them including the so-called “innocents” which in my estimation are all under school age. Anyone who’s been to an UNWRA hate school has already had their mind poisoned. But still, Hamas want a total surrender and withdrawal before they will hand over a single hostage. Now we know. It wasn’t Sinwar’s negotiating stance. It was Iran’s.  

Not happening.

Iran will get what it has coming.

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