If you can imagine having a family member being held by a homicidal maniac in an underground tunnel for 477 days, then multiply that by nine million, you will understand how the people of Israel are feeling today. After a tumultuous week of joyous reunion, and the devastation of opening our prison gates to die-hard murderers guilty of unspeakable crimes, I think all of us here are in shell shock.

I can’t understand this ceasefire deal. Gaza is a pile of rubble. Hamas has its back to the wall, and still, all we could get is the release of 33 hostages, not even a third of those supposedly still in Gaza? And now we are being subjected to images of Hamas renewing its hold over Gaza with armed, uniformed soldiers, a situation we lost so many soldiers’ lives to prevent. Worse, the following people (and hundreds just like them) are now or will be later, walking free in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, or in Europe.

These include Wael Qassem leader of the “Silwan Cell’ responsible for the attack at the Moment Cafe in Jerusalem in which 11 Israelis were murdered; the attack at the Spidel Club in Rishon LeZion in which 15 Israelis were murdered, and the attack at the Frank Sinatra cafeteria at the Hebrew University in which 9 Israelis were murdered. Zakaria Zubeidi – former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin responsible for murdering 6 Israelis in Beit Shean. Abdullah Sharbati, Majdi Za’atari and Samer al-Atrash, members of the cell responsible for the 2003 bus bombings on line 2 and 14 in Jerusalem which murdered 23 Israelis, including 7 children; and the suicide attack on line 6 on French Hill in which 7 Israelis were murdered and 20 were injured, and who were planning a long series of additional attacks.

If Israel was a normal country with a death penalty, none of them would still be alive.

And yet, this horrible reality sits side by side with another reality: The release of Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag, young women soldier/observers who were brutally kidnapped by Hamas even as they did their army duty and reported the imminent Hamas attack – reports that were fatally ignored. The joyous images of these brave young women safely back in the arms of their parents and boyfriends, has released the entire country from 477 days of horror and worry over their fate in the hands of their depraved captors. That was the deal with the devil we made.

No other country in the world has ever been successfully blackmailed by their brutal opponents in the midst of a defensive war by the torture and kidnapping of their citizens. It is unprecedented. And it sets a dangerous precedent.

Had Israel had the backing of the free world, it wouldn’t have been necessary.

I also don’t understand why our good President Trump sent in his Qatar-compromised golf buddy Steve Witkoff to implement a terrible ceasefire plan agreed to under the shackles of the despicable Biden administration, instead of renegotiating a better deal. I don’t understand what the end game is going to be and how the rest of the hostages are going to be released before we finish off Hamas, because everyone – Trump and Netanyahu included – have made it clear that is what has to happen.

But this I do understand. I was at yet another ceremony where my granddaughter received her official promotion to Lieutenant Second Class. Sitting with the other families of newly promoted IDF soldiers, bursting with pride and yes, joy, I understood this: we may not know what is in store for us as citizens or soldiers, but we are ready, willing and able to confront it.  We are prepared. We are hopeful the mistakes of the past have prepared us to be wiser and more effective in saving the lives of our people. And we are full of faith that the God of Israel will help us to overcome the evil that has taken over so much of the world.

We have faith that our steadfast refusal to give up and give in will shame a spineless world into straightening its back and confronting Islamic ugliness and violence now spreading its vile poison. We are confident that despite the stupid mistakes, the unthinkable miscalculations, the overwhelming numbers of our enemies and their endless resources, we shall nevertheless triumph to bring peace and freedom to our people and to the world.

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