TEL AVIV— Israel is a small country in population, size, and attitude. The community there is tight in ways North Americans can’t understand. They are a nation that has been embattled for nearly a century, and it has bonded citizens tightly. When the terrorists poured into Israel on October 7, 2023, and carried out an orgy of rape and murder upon unarmed citizens, the whole nation felt it.In speaking to people while I was there, the degree of separation between the victims and citizens was narrow. Everybody I talked to either directly knew one of the 1,219 people murdered or one of the 251 hostages taken on that day, or they knew somebody who had a family member or loved one among them. Deaths and attacks have become a part of living in Israel, though there had never been a one-day toll as was seen on October 7th. The citizens wouldn’t dismiss the deaths but would move on from terror attack to a rocket attack and accept a limited retaliation..When the hostages were taken on October 7th, though, everything changed. The nation wanted its people back alive or dead, and they were not going to stop efforts to bring them home no matter what the rest of the world thought about it.In every community from large cities to small kibbutzim, you couldn’t miss all the memorials and displays demanding the release of the hostages. Large banners with pictures of them all were evident on every fence and balcony. Yellow ribbons, chairs, and cars were seen on every roadside. Nobody was going to forget those taken, and they would never give up. It really had to be seen and felt to be understood. .Western protesters were demanding a ceasefire from Israel within days of the October 7th attacks. Did they really expect Israel to abandon the men, women, and children taken on that day? Whenever demands for a ceasefire came from activists or governments, the response from Israel was simple and blunt: release the hostages..The recipe for ending the war was always simple. Israel would back off as soon as the hostages were released. But not a minute sooner.Some ceasefires came and went. They always involved the release of hostages. The monsters of Hamas used them and their remains as bargaining chips for nearly two years. The bodies were also slowly released. In Judaism, the body is sacred. A family can’t properly mourn, and a soul is not considered to be at rest until the body has been interred. .Terrorists attacking Israel are well aware of this and have used the remains of victims for years for leverage in conflicts.In exchange for the last of the living hostages and bodies (Israel still hasn’t gotten them all), Israel released over 2,000 people from its prisons. Israel wasn’t holding hostages. The prisoners had been incarcerated for terrorist acts from blowing up buses to random stabbings. They were dangerous people who likely will soon resume attacks upon Israelis, yet Israel was willing to release them to get 35 of its own people back. Think about that..OLDCORN: Saskatchewan should follow Alberta’s lead on drug courts and learn from Portugal.So far, the ceasefire has held. I was on the ground and watching flatbed trucks pulling tanks out of Gaza while a stream of trucks with aid for Gazans poured in.I spoke to many IDF soldiers and their parents. None of them had any interest in staying in Gaza any longer than they had to. Most of them are young conscripts serving time for their nation. .They would much rather do their time on sleepy patrols along the beaches of Tel Aviv than be in a kill-or-be-killed situation in Gaza. The nation is breathing a sigh of relief that its people are coming home. Not just the hostages, but the soldiers tasked with trying to recover them. Despite the claims of Western activists, Israelis in general have no use for war. They are tired of the rockets and exhausted with the deaths. Now that the hostages have been released, public support for further action in Gaza is falling fast..WHISSELL: Pierre Poilievre Derangement Syndrome.The conflict is far from over. The rubble of Gaza is still teeming with radicals and extremists. They are down but not out, and future attacks are likely if something doesn’t change. Likewise, the neighbouring nations of Lebanon and Syria still harbour terrorists along with the West Bank. Some sort of third-party intermediary will have to get between these groups and Israel, somehow, if peace is to be found. If some kind of two-state solution is possible, it will take years if not decades to iron out. It’s worth pursuing though.With the more immediate issue now behind them, the appetite for change in the Israeli government is strong. People were willing to rally behind Netanyahu during a time of war, but now they are ready for an inquiry..How was the nation so vulnerable?How can this be avoided in the future?Who can and will be held accountable on the Israeli side?.SLOBODIAN: When ostriches and whales die, so does Canada.With the hostages returned home, the feeling of relief was palpable while I was there. People were partying on the streets of Tel Aviv and were eager to get on with their lives. They aren’t forgetting for a moment what happened. But they are ready to move forward. The conflict has dragged on for over two years now. The bombardment of Gaza could have ended within months if Israel’s simple demand for the release of the hostages had been met. Activists ignored that plea with the naïve belief that Israel would ever be willing to abandon its citizens to Hamas.This conflict was always about the hostages.
