Yet, in a deeper sense, it feels as though the ground beneath us has shifted. The power of Hamas was not just in its weapons or its destruction—it was in its ability to shake our identity, to fracture the values that once held us together.
Perhaps Hamas succeeded in hitting us where it hurts most—our sense of unity, our shared responsibility for one another; The spirit of “all of Israel is responsible for one another” now feels hollow, replaced by a fractured reality where solidarity is conditional and selective
The shift is glaring. A loud minority, though not the majority, has reframed the hostage crisis as a personal tragedy rather than a national one. They’ve redefined loyalty—not to the country or its values but to the prime minister. Gratitude toward him has become the twisted yardstick by which we measure the worth of hostages and their families.
And then there’s the prime minister himself, a man presiding over the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. His decision to nominate a Shin Bet head reportedly opposed to hostage deals sends a chilling message: “This is an eternal war.” To Hamas, these moves signal victory—not on the battlefield but in the erosion of our moral foundation.
Once, we held ourselves to this standard. Truth mattered, even when it was uncomfortable. Today, that commitment feels lost, replaced by a singular question: does this truth serve Netanyahu?
And then there’s the concept of responsibility—a word that once carried immense weight in Israeli society. Every soldier learns its meaning in basic training: a commander is accountable for his soldiers, for their victories and, most of all, for their failures. Yet Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in our history, has twisted the very idea of responsibility. How can a leader who once called Hamas “an asset” now deny accountability for the events of October 7? How can he claim ignorance about Qatari funds flowing to Hamas when these policies were enacted under his watch?
This war has tested us in ways we never imagined. It has exposed the worst in us—the cracks in our unity, the erosion of our values. But it has also revealed the resilience of the majority, the Israelis who refuse to abandon their humanity. They are the ones who will carry this country forward, ensuring that Hamas’ fleeting “victory” is nothing more than an illusion.
