Coming Home ...

Days of indescribable emotions—unbridled joy alongside aching sadness and a healthy dose of worry—get reflected in the press, and in social media, as well.

An entire country on pins and needles. Is this really, really going to happen? When? Why does the hour keep changing? Are all of those in the “alive” category on the front page of Yedi’ot below really going to come home alive? How many of the deceased will Hamas be “unable to locate”? How long are they planning to drag out the “search” for these people? What does “alive” mean—in what condition are the living hostages going to come home?

What happens after? What about the IDF’s warning that there are already very worrying developments in Gaza? The thousands of Gazas already getting to close to IDF troops and the yellow line? And that the US has approved the renewal of Qatari funding of Gaza? At best, this is going to be a mess. More on that down the road…

The press on Friday reflected a variety of emotions, all of them accurate. In the days to come, we’ll look at the social fabric that is pulled so taut, one wonders if it’s about to rip. And we’ll see the deep sense of relief, and on many levels, a sense of shared destiny.

All that’s to come. For now, the press and the national mood over the weekend (the Israeli weekend is over …).

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THE COMPLEX MOOD AND DEEP SENSE OF LOSS AND GRATITUDE

Yedi’ot Achronot: the large blue headline reads, THEY’RE COMING HOME

Israel Hayom: in the white headline, “Shehechyahu Ve-kiy’manu”, atop of photo of Einav Zangauker, one of the most high profile (and truly heroic) leaders of the Hostage Family Forum, upon hearing that her son, Matan, is coming home.

Makor Rishon, atop a photo of Israeli soldiers, completely exposed in the Gaza battlefield, led with a one word headline, בזכותם. Technically, the word means “Thanks go them,” but that translation doesn’t capture the full sense of bi-zechut. It’s more accurately rendered: “with profound indebtedness.”

Indeed. בזכותם.

Eschewing all politics, the headline pointed to an obvious truth that must be stated time and again. As Jared Kushner noted last night in his speech in Tel Aviv, this day would not have come without the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, some in their regular service and many of them reservists with families and jobs, too many of whom paid the ultimate price, who dropped everything and went to war to restore Israel’s security.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT TRUMP.

Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud have been trying to bend the narrative so that the government is seen as a critical factor in ending the war, but that’s going to be a tough row to hoe for the time being (though that will change). For now, it’s all Trump.

And if the Post constructed an image of Trump made of the photos of the hostages, Yedi’ot put it even more clearly, in the large yellow headline, in a fashion that will no doubt please the President if and when it’s brought to his attention: נשיא עולמי — “World President.”

Lest the message be missed, the white wording below the yellow headline reads as follows:

One man, a strongman and a rules-breaker, is the sole person responsible for the dramatic agreement between Hamas and Israel ◼️ Now comes the test of implementation, and measuring our accomplishments versus our losses, and above all else right now: the tears, the hugs and the anxious anticipation of the return of all the hostages ◼️ A broad review of a historic turning point

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The joyous news is tempered not only by worry about the content of the deal and all that is not known about it, but continued losses.

Master Sgt. (res.) Shmuel Gad Rahamim, 31, of the Southern Brigade’s 7015th Battalion, died yesterday two weeks after being grievously wounded in a grenade accident. Even in these last hours of the war, the unthinkable toll has risen once again.

And there are civilian deaths, as well. Roi Shalev, whose parter, Mapal Adam, was killed at the Nova, took his own life just as it appeared that the national ordeal was ending. The tragic loss is a reminder that even when all the hostages are, Gd willing, home, there will remain thousands of other people still “at war,” who will need our support, much more than they’ve gotten thus far.

In an interview, Roi’s father said (in the headline above), “Roi was wounded [at the Nova] and [two years later] died of his wounds. That is how we have to think about the survivors of the Nova.”

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NAFTALI BENNETT’S FB POST ABOUT MAPAL AND ROI

Upon hearing of Roi’s death, former PM Natfali Bennett posted the following, reminding us in greater detail than we tend to recall of the horror that people endured and still endure, and reminding us, as well, of all the healing that is far from complete.

I have not spoken about this before.

A day or two after October 7, early in the morning, the country was in shock. Even before the funeral of Mapal Adam, of blessed memory, who was murdered at Nova, I arrived at the home of her sister, Maayan.

Her mother was there, her brother Yarden, Maayan herself, and Yuval, Maayan’s partner.

We sat in the small yard and talked.

Then Roi Shalev, Mapal’s partner, arrived, and he sat down to tell her family for the first time what had actually happened, and how Mapal died.

I got up to leave—it was such a deeply personal moment—but the family said to me: “Stay.”

Then, for about an hour, Roi described in a trembling voice, detail after detail.

How he and Mapal hid under a car, and Hili Solomon, of blessed memory, Mapal’s friend, under another nearby car, with dozens if not hundreds of terrorists all around.

How they stayed silent and tried to pretend they were dead.

How the cursed terrorists came and shot them, “confirmation of kill,” at point-blank range.

How blood flowed from their bodies, and Mapal’s life flowed out of her and ended there, as they lay pressed together.

How the monsters came back a second time and shot everyone again, and the car’s fuel leaked onto them and mixed with the blood.

How he smeared himself, and I think also Mapal, with blood so they would look dead.

How for long hours no one arrived.

I felt like I was listening to the story of a Holocaust survivor minutes after liberation from Auschwitz.

Because that is what it was there — a small Holocaust.

No country. No army.

Jews hiding for hours from murderous monsters.

We all felt that Roi was wracked with guilt for not managing to save the love of his life, Mapal, of blessed memory, nor her friend Hili.

Roi, of course, could not have done more than he did, and bore no blame in any way for the tragedy.

Mapal’s family also told him this in the clearest way, enveloping him with great love and sensitivity.

Since then, as I understand, Roi acted to try to help others as much as possible.
At dawn, two years later, Roi’s strength could no longer carry him, and this man with the wounded soul took his own life.

Another soul murdered on that cursed day.

In the coming days, hopefully starting tomorrow, we will celebrate the return of the hostages.

But we must not forget the murdered,
the fallen fighters and their families.

We must not forget the survivors struggling every day with the horrors of the soul.

We must not forget the thousands injured in body and mind.

They live among us, and it is our duty to care for them.

This is a matter of national priority.

It is urgent!

The day after we form the government, a directorate will be established to care for the victims and their families — it is a moral, national, governmental duty.

May the soul of Roi Shalev be bound in the bond of life, alongside the love of his life, Mapal.

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AND WITH THE FERVENT PRAYER THAT THIS BE THE LAST TIME WE EVER HAVE TO POST THIS CONCLUSION: