Two years of horror, turmoil, yellow ribbons, loud demonstrations, and now, finally, the pregnant silence of an inheld breath. It is the Feast of Tabernacles, or as we Jews say, Sukkot, which is called “the holiday of our happiness.” At a dinner in the Sukkah of friends, our host pointed out that one of the sacrifices asked for on Sukkot is a water sacrifice. Basically, nothing. On Sukkot, he said, all the people of Israel have to do is show up. The Sukkah booth, that simple, temporary outdoor structure of three walls, and a palm leaf or straw roof, is there to embrace us. The holiday is God giving the people of Israel a big hug.

And I thought: after all we have suffered these past two years, all the murders, rapes, ridiculous false calumnies and baseless hatred, that is what the people of Israel need now: a big hug from their Creator.

The release of the hostages is that hug. Scheduled for some time in the next 48 hours, we are all praying it goes off without a hitch and that we can put this horrific trial behind us. If so, we have, most of all, our IDF soldiers to thank, the men and women who left their partners, their children, their livelihoods behind and put on their uniforms and picked up their guns, tanks, and planes and saved us all from annihilation.

We must thank our Prime Minister, who despite the nay-sayers who marched and rallied and shouted that we should surrender and leave Gaza with Hamas intact, pursued the path of righteous war against implacable enemies and led to their defeat. We thank President Trump and his negotiators, not only for this agreement, which took the heat off Israel and reached a world-wide consensus that all the hostages must be released at once and that Hamas must be wiped out and exiled from Gaza.

There is no doubt that we await with much hope and no less trepidation to see if that barbaric group of terrorists can be depended upon to keep its word. With any luck, and God’s help, the hostages will be home when Hamas begins to renege, in which case our soldiers will finish the job.

The bitter pill of being forced to release the murderers of our people from our jails, being sanitized as a “prisoner exchange,” breaks our hearts. And I say once again, we need the death penalty for these people instead of keeping them as bargaining tools and encouraging more kidnappings.

In the meantime, according to Abu Ali, “Hamas is doing everything it can to continue consolidating its grip on the Gazan street. This is not how someone behaves if they intend to give up power.” Scores of heavily armed Hamas operatives wasted no time reclaiming the area from which Israeli forces withdrew, murdering, arresting, and punishing their Gazan opponents. A plague on both their houses.

And while we are on that subject, the widening military border conflict between the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Pakistanis is in the meantime keeping those barbarians focused on killing each other. Excellent. Keep it going I say! Now if someone would only attack Yemen!

What will happen to the nonexistent “innocents” of Gaza? One option, Gazans will be able to exit through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt in the next few days, as the crossing, closed for the last year and a half, reopens. According to the travel and tourism company ElAf, priority will first be given to the sick and wounded, in coordination with the World Health Organization, as well as to Egyptian citizens. This will be subject to Israeli approval. According to Elaf, the Rafah Crossing will operate according to the 2005 protocol: under the supervision of the European Union, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt. Later on, entry to Gaza through the crossing will also be possible – subject to Israeli security screening – the operating procedures will be published at a later date.

Three Qatari diplomats, on their way to the “enemies of Israel” summit in Sharm El Sheik tomorrow, were killed in a car accident. Many more cars of many more diplomats will be traveling that route…

It is reported that Netanyahu spoke to Putin on October 6 and said that Israel does not intend to attack Iran again. And I say, unless Iranians make it absolutely necessary. Let us hope when they run out of water and money, both of which are running dry for the mullahs at the moment, they will be sufficiently sane to leave Israel alone.

What is amazing – if true – is the Washington Post article that divulged that despite the public condemnations against Israel over the war in Gaza, through the US, six Arab countries have deepened their military ties with Israel during the war: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

During the Sukkot holiday, one of the segments from the Prophets we read deals with an apocalyptic war, where “a great horde, a mighty army” composed of many people from all over the world will invade a peaceful Israel, and God will use the opportunity to utterly destroy them, and fill mass graves with their rotting corpses. I thought of this when I read this exchange in the between Turkey’s ruthless, Islamic dictator Erdoğan and people in the Turkish city of Rize:

‘Take us to Gaza,” the crowd shouted.

Erdoğan replied: First I will go to Gaza, and then you.”

Shall we start digging the holes now?

And last but not least, from the interview of senior Hamas official Basem Naim last night on Sky News in English: “Our weapons will be handed over only to the Palestinian state. Our fighters will be integrated into the Palestinian national army. Until then, no one can prevent us from resisting the occupation by all means. We are not going to disarm until we are sure that this will lead to an independent state that can defend itself.”

Wake up call, Basem! There is never going to be a Palestinian State. Hamas will either hand over its weapons, or die trying to hold on to them. With the same ease with which the IDF pulled back, it can move forward.

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