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Decades ago, as an Israeli immigrant applying for health insurance, I was asked if I suffered any illness. I explained my history of stomach ailments. The insurance rep laughed and stamped my application - ‘HEALTHY’.
Life in Israel is raw and passionate, and suffering from anxiety can be pretty common. I always joked that this comes with citizenship. Things happen here that stretch a person’s emotional range - things that are above and beyond the expected stress of dealing with bureaucracy in a foreign language and making social faux pas in an adopted country. I have experienced them aplenty: I’ve ducked behind cars to avoid being stabbed by terrorists; I’ve jumped into ditches during air raid sirens from Gaza; I’ve carried my gas mask on blind dates as instructed by the Home Guard; I’ve used masking tape to seal my doors against ballistic missiles from Iraq potentially carrying toxic warheads; I’ve queued for hours at the supermarket for food supplies before the shops closed for curfew; I’ve guided my dinner guests to a bomb shelter as sirens screamed in the streets, interrupting the appetiser, and again later when another missile cut short our dessert. If you want to connect with your emotions, this is the place to be.
So I’ve seen a thing or two.
But no one expected the last two years. There has been sustained shock from the Hamas massacre. Our hostages were beyond reach. Thousands of our soldiers were injured or killed. Families were torn apart. Israelis were uprooted from their homes. The world around us became confused and hostile. Instead of being understood and dealt with properly, the awful suffering of Gazans became a large publicity stunt at our expense. And we in Israel have been living with a sense of helplessness. Every day became a nightmare.
The Blink of an Eye
Late last week, in what felt like the blink of an eye, that all changed. Within 72 hours, we were told, all Israeli hostages - 20 living and 28 corpses - would be released. One reporter I heard sounded on the verge of tears.
On Monday morning, Erev Simchat Torah, two years since we went into collective shock, the living Israeli hostages were handed over to the Red Cross. The streets of Jerusalem were virtually empty as TV sets in most homes flashed the unfolding events. More impressive was that hundreds of thousands didn’t stay home to watch their TVs alone; they gathered together at erstwhile hostage protest points to experience this moment together.
As a restorative experience. A חוויה מתקנת. A moment of closure. Together. כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה .
In Jerusalem, I headed to the protest encampment at Paris Square. It was the last day of Hol Hamoed Sukkot, and I walked past numerous Sukkas on the way that would soon be taken down.
It was bitter sweet. Many months after October 7, 2023, I visited Israeli villages near Gaza where the Hamas massacres had taken place. Having fled, the residents had not taken down their 2023 Sukkas, and they remained throughout the year as a eery testament to the atrocities that had occurred.
Collective Breath-holding
When I got to Paris Square, a large sign declared the day count of captivity.
Another sign expressed the tension in the air.
‘We are waiting for you with bated breath’, it loudly declared to the hostages.
Beyond, well-wishers crowded around a projection screen that had been set up to show a live broadcast of the hostages’ homecoming. On a split screen, images of Red Cross vans driving through the rubble of Gaza danced beside footage of Donald Trump landing at Ben Gurion Airport and walking the red carpet laid out before Air Force One.
US Presidents vs US Royalty
I was in Jerusalem when Jimmy Carter strolled the Old Jerusalem market in the early 1980s, and also a decade later when Bill Clinton’s convoy sped by on its way to the Laromme Hotel. But this visit by Donald Trump was more like that of royalty. And notwithstanding anything else people think of him, there is no doubt that, by throwing the full force of US support behind Israel at this difficult time, President Trump has facilitated a fundamental shift in the dynamic of our region. Our gratitude to Trump and the America he represents for pushing all parties across the line and helping Israel out of the Gaza quagmire is genuine. This is truly historical.
Unbridled Joy
When images flickered up showing the hostages in Israeli helicopters, back under our control, the crowd shouted and applauded. Groups began dancing and singing around me.
The ubiquitous yellow chairs that have lined the streets of the country for so long, representing the absent hostages, were removed from their places and used as dancing props. Vehicles reappeared on the street honking their horns in solidarity as they passed.
Revellers popped open bottles of wine and spirits, handed out cups to all and sundry and made loud blessings of thanks for having reached this moment.
״שהחיינו וקיימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה״
‘Thank you, God, for giving us life and sustaining us so that we could get to this point in time.’
One could not escape the elation that was universally felt. I couldn’t help but feel that this was a replay of the joy that filled the air in the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish communities of Israel, the day the United Nations recognised the State of Israel. I have always wondered if I would ever feel such passion and depth of emotion. This week, I did.
During the Sukkot festival, a water-drawing ceremony was traditionally held in ancient times. The Talmud states that “one who has not seen this Simchat Beit HaShoeva has never seen joy in his life”. That was how it felt on Monday. A national sigh of relief and release. The tension was gone. The war was over. The hostages are back.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the high-profile mother of Hersh, who was kidnapped and later executed point-blank in a tunnel only days before he was to be released, instituted the daily practice of marking the number of days of the hostages’ captivity on a tape on her lapel. Many around the country followed suit. On Monday, representatives at the protest encampment handed out tape bearing the word הביתה״”, “Home”.
It’s Not That Simple
The emotional turmoil we are all experiencing was eloquently described last week when Golderg-Polin spoke about news of the ceasefire agreement.
Referring to the book of Ecclesiastes, she said:
“What is happening to all of us, our nation right now, is so deeply complex that my knees are buckling… There is a season for everything and a time for everything. But now today we are being asked to digest all of those seasons, all of those times, at the exact same second, winter spring, summer, fall, all four right now…it says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, and we have to do both right now…It says there is a time to tear and a time to heal, and we have to do both right now… and it says there is a time to sob and a time to dance, and we have to do both right now.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyTIiBz7W20&t=1s
With that, Goldberg-Polin has perfectly expressed the national sentiment.
Over the ensuing day, Simchat Torah, people started sharing their feelings of disorientation, trying to decide whether it was safe to let down their guard and feel at ease.
Back to Normal?
Every year, following the High Holiday period, Israelis return to their everyday humdrum lives, a period referred to in Hebrew as ‘Acharei Hachagim’. Yesterday marked the beginning of this period, and I scanned the media to see what our new ‘humdrum’ lives might look like.
Of the almost 2000 Palestinian detainees released by Israel, about 200 with multiple life sentences for murder were released to the West Bank, from where they will have access to enter the entire country.
Since the agreement was signed, battles have broken out in Gaza between Hamas and other armed clans. Public executions in Gaza already appear to be taking place.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/14/middleeast/gaza-public-execution-gaza-city-hamas-intl
Hamas has put up obstacles to the return of deceased hostages, as required by the recent agreement.
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-hostages-10-16-25
Accounts are emerging of the horrific conditions in which the released hostages were held in Gaza.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/14/released-israeli-hostages-speak-of-torture-torment-and-co-existence
A Gaza Peace Summit was held this week in Egypt, seeking the support cooperation of numerous countries to the ceasefire agreement. With an acceptable framework for joining the Abraham accords and making peace with Israel, and the possibility of getting some of the enormous financial benefits expected from the rebuilding of Gaza, everyone wants in.
This includes those countries who attacked Israel and undermined hostage release negotiations by recognising a Palestinian state with no change to the previous status quo (see the UK and Australia, et al).
And Bibi didn’t attend either. This was reportedly because countries trying to get on Trump’s good side by coming to his party still don’t want to be seen talking to his best friend.
https://www.pressreader.com/kuwait/kuwait-times/20251014/281801405170016
The summit took place during the Simchat Torah festival, and there are some who feel that Bibi didn’t want to endanger his coalition by attending on a festival, thus earning the ire of his religious coalition partners.
The Question Remains
Taking all this into account, the question remains: Is it safe for us to let down our guards and feel at ease? That’s the question. But in the meantime, we are all trying to regain our breath and get a decent night’s sleep for the first time in years.
