Just as at the beginning of the war, on the seventh of October 2023, we sat riveted to our TV screens, drinking in any and every scrap of information about what was happening on our southern border, just two days ago we once again sat riveted as the hostages returned and Donald Trump addressed our parliament. In this day and age we take it for granted that everything that happens is shown to us in detail and in full-blown colour more or less as it happens, while we sit in the comfort of our home.

I wonder what would have happened if this had been the case in the previous century, when the First and Second World Wars broke out, when Jews were torn from their homes and sent to concentration camps to be murdered en masse. Would those events have been shown on prime time TV? Would it have made any difference if they had? There were photographs and newsreels at the time, and some images have endured, but these were almost always post factum, or at least not widely available to a viewing public.

And so a whole nation, and possibly a whole world, watched with bated breath and swelling hearts as returning hostages ran into the arms of their waiting mothers and fathers, embracing spouses, siblings, friends, and even in some exceptional cases their own young children. It was impossible not to be moved at the sight, and not to share in the joy and relief of all concerned.

Over the course of the last two years we have witnessed the struggle of the families of the hostages to bring their loved ones home. Most of the hostages were brutally seized from their kibbutz homes on that dreadful morning by the terrorists who invaded our country after having spent over a decade building a tunnel system to rival that of the London Underground, acquiring weapons and training men to harm and destroy peaceful settlements. Motivated by implacable hatred, the perpetrators of the horrible deeds that ensued filmed their vile acts and broadcast them to the world. Anyone who was exposed to those sights was scarred for life.

The motivation for broadcasting those horrors was apparently to instill fear into the hearts of Israel’s citizens, but in fact the opposite happened. What had been intended to cow our population served only to stiffen our resolve to prevent any such assault ever happening again. And we were not the only ones to take that course, as President Trump has proved. The rubble that is what remains of the Gaza Strip proves that lousy actions have lousy consequences, and the sight is reminiscent of the devastated cities of Nazi Germany after they were bombed by the Allies in WWII.

With hindsight we all know that for a variety of reasons Israel let its guard down on that day, with the disastrous results from which we are suffering to this day. While the images on our screens just a few days ago have brought the country together in rejoicing at the happy family reunions, we must not forget the hundreds of innocent civilians who were slaughtered on that day two years ago, nor the hundreds of soldiers killed in the fighting since then.

We all hope that the peace will hold and that our nation can once again focus on building a better society and a brighter future for our children and grandchildren. We hope that from now on our screens will show us the benefits of peace enjoyed by both sides, with Gazans no longer meandering homeless but able to build a stable society and benefit from the good will that has been shown to them, and Israel thriving once again.