In the beginnings ...
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The days of Israelis being glued to their TV’s as twenty living hostages were at long last returned to Israel are behind us. Many of the hostages have already left the hospitals and have gone home, welcomed by cheering throngs outside their houses — ready to begin what everyone knows will be a long, complex and painful recovery.
Yet what’s behind us is not only the days of incessant TV watching, but also the euphoria. The sobriety that has returned is due to many factors: Hamas has already violated the cease fire agreement by failing to return a sufficient number of bodies, but Israel knows that it can’t do much at this point—Trump and the other involved nations want quiet.
That confidence born of a sense of victory is fading.
Hamas is quickly reestablishing itself as the ruling authority in Gaza, executing dozens of its opponents in broad daylight. Clips of Hamas’ public executions are all over Israeli news and social media—Israelis cannot help but note that suddenly, the loss of life in Gaza doesn’t bother anyone very much.
That goal of ending Hamas’ rule? Not so much.
There’s sobriety because of the harrowing stories we’re hearing about how the hostages were tortured and abused—how they put in the faces that they did in front of the cameras as they were released is beyond comprehension. More on that below.
Every modern culture has photos that evoke waves of associations. The photo of JFK Jr. saluting his father’s coffin. The protester in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square. The last American helicopter taking off from Saigon. Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson weeping as FDR’s funeral train left Warm Springs, Georgia. Show those photos to virtually any American (at least Americans of my generation) and what follows is a flood of emotions and memories.
Israel, too, has those images. Rabbi Shlomo Goren blowing the shofar at the Western Wall in 1967. Eichmann in his glass box during his trial. Ben Gurion wiping his brow immediately before declaring statehood. It’s a long list.
I don’t know whether YNet intended its photograph of an Israeli tank pulling out of Gaza as the cease fire went into effect to be as ironic as it was. The Hebrew at the bottom of the photograph says “The cease fire has gone into effect.” The smaller headline at the top reads, “IDF forces leaving Gaza.”
What was ironic about the photograph, whether intended or not? I imagine that it was lost on few Israelis how similar that photo is to the new iconic photo of the Hamas bulldozer breaking down the fence on October 7 2023 allowing thousands of Hamas terrorists to flood the Gaza envelope and to unleash atrocities.
How similar, in some ways, were the end and the beginning.
Israelis over a certain age also remember 2000, when Israeli troops left Lebanon, hopped off their APC, walked to the gate and locked it, seemingly leaving the disaster of Lebanon behind them.
