Difficult days are still ahead of us, perhaps in the not-too-distant future
According to reports, the conversation between the prime minister and the Israeli hostage negotiation team last week was a full-on shouting match.
“You’re wimps, you have no idea how to negotiate,” Netanyahu was heard to say. “Instead of putting pressure on me, put pressure on Sinwar.”
The prime minister slammed the negotiators for pushing for a hostage deal that failed to meet his core demands: a commitment to continue the war and Israeli control of the Philadelphi Route, the smuggling route between Gaza and Egypt.
It didn’t last long, but for a few days, Israel regained the October 8 atmosphere of togetherness — except this time we were brought together by pride rather than pain. Israeli initiative, creativity, and siyata d’Shmaya — everything we were famed for until last Simchas Torah — enabled the stunning elimination of two terrorist leaders. The deaths of Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr in Lebanon made the world a better place, and Israel a happier one, at least for one evening.
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