Welcome to the day after \u2013 we hope. Our troops, including many reservists, remain mobilized. Our wounds are still fresh. Hamas will continue scheming, trying to keep oppressing Gazans and menacing Israelis. But, with the living hostages returned amid this ceasefire, it\u2019s time to start healing. That requires uniting our nation, not just recovering from this war.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s statement last Friday was accurate. We should salute him for resisting overwhelming worldwide pressure to swallow earlier, less-Israel-friendly deals. He\u2019s right: most never thought so many hostages would return home \u2013 although few conceived that 20 innocents would be tortured for two years.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that a formidable mix of Israeli military might, Bibi\u2019s tenaciousness, and Trumpian diplomatic pyrotechnics freed the remaining hostages \u2013 while keeping an Israeli military presence in Gaza, which means Hamas lost territory by invading Israel.<\/p>\n
So Netanyahu earned his victory lap. He\u2019s correct that: \u201cWe have achieved great victories, victories that change the face of the Middle East.\u201d But why, oh why, did Netanyahu fail right then? Rather than uniting the country, he couldn\u2019t stop working his base. Although he honored our fighters, he should have gone deeper.<\/p>\n
And on Sunday, his call for unity was just too vague. He should have emphasized that our victorious soldiers represent all of Israel, Jews and non-Jews, leftists and rightists, religious and secular, Bibi-lovers and Bibi-bashers too. This was a moment for grace and even some h-u-m-i-l-i-t-y \u2013 a word few politicians know. It\u2019s not too late. This week, Netanyahu should take this triumphal moment, with all its complexity, and be the statesman he once aspired to be.<\/p>\n
He should be as daring domestically as he was in defying the critics. Now is the time to acknowledge his failures on October 7 and during the buildup to that nightmare, including unleashing the divisive judicial reform debate he so mishandled that the country looked weak to our enemies. He should strike a commission of inquiry, staffed by respectable non-partisan experts. He should acknowledge some wartime miscalculations. And he should bravely meet critics, visit more Gaza-corridor communities, and absorb more of their pain and anger.<\/p>\n
Most important, while calling for elections, he should promise to freeze the judicial reforms. Israel needs time to heal, not a return to the pre-October 7 tribal clashes. If he and his Likudniks are so confident about the need for reform, let them emphasize it in their campaign this time and get the people\u2019s consent first.<\/p>\n
Simultaneously, the anti-Bibi zealots must ratchet down their wrath. They should start by taking a break from protesting, starting this Saturday night. That would earn some credibility from the fed-up Israeli majority, proving that they\u2019re not just frozen in I-hate-Bibi mania but a strategic, constructive political movement seeking change. (It also might help the long-suffering theaters that miss their patronage!)<\/p>\n
These ABBers \u2013 Anybody But Bibistas \u2013 should model the kind of grace we wish we got from our prime minister. They should thank him and his aides for defying the odds and bringing as many hostages home as they did.<\/p>\n
They also must be shrewd and protect Israel\u2019s soul. Even if some bodies aren\u2019t located, we should mourn them respectfully without holding our nation hostage for years to a devastating replay of the Ron Arad purgatory. It\u2019s heartbreaking. Some cherished fellow citizens will not be buried in Israeli soil due to the unintentional chaos of war and Hamas\u2019s intentional evil. We can never empower Hamas again to attack us \u2013 or inhibit our necessary military responses. Alas, such maturity seems missing on Kaplan Street.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday night, when the American hostage negotiator Steve Witkoff spoke at Hostage Square and properly thanked Netanyahu and his aide Ron Dermer, most protesters booed wildly. When they act so crudely, stirring tribal furies, how can they expect Netanyahu and his allies to transcend partisanship? And how dare they boo just when hostages were about to return and in front of a foreigner who works with our prime minister and needs to respect him. Will anyone break this cynical cycle of sanctimonious schism? Will anyone champion the average Israeli fed up with both extremes\u2019 take-no-prisoners, often self-sabotaging, rigidity?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not na\u00efve. I know Netanyahu is convinced that his path to re-election again involves stirring pots, not extending hands. And I know the Bibi-bashers believe that their pressure freed the hostages. They can\u2019t see how their divisive partisanship and protests against Israel, not Hamas, raised the price for their loved ones, probably prolonging their agony.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that Israel is as likely to outgrow its in-your-face, sharp-elbowed, partisan clashes as Democrats are to endorse President Donald Trump\u2019s futile Nobel Peace Prize bid. It doesn\u2019t help that we live in a social media moment globally that feeds off of division and demagoguery and disdain. Sometimes, Israeli politics seem downright kumbaya compared to the toxicity in America, England, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
But have we learned nothing from the build-up to October 7?<\/p>\n
At one of the many memorials one of our sons attended last week, a grieving father honored his 22-year-old son, who died saving lives on October 7, by saying: \u201cYou were in the right place at the right time and did the right thing.\u201d That goose-bump-inducing proclamation reflects the Zionist spirit of heroism, patriotism, and altruism that saved Israel \u2013 and the West \u2013 from those evil jihadists.<\/p>\n
Honoring that family \u2013 and others \u2013 I challenge our dueling partisans. This is now the right time for you too: do the right thing. And if our leaders don\u2019t get it \u2013 their followers should demand it!<\/p>\n