Coming Home ...
Description
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 …).
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.
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.
United States
