The Complex Return of Israeli Hostages

Watch and Listen

When I met Atown Gonan in Los Angeles in

November of 2023 he was wearing a shirt

with his 23-year-old daughter romy's

face on it it had been a little over a

month since Romy had been shot and

kidnapped from a music festival by

Palestinian terrorists and Eton was

touring the globe speaking to anyone who

would listen to keep the spotlight on

his captive daughter I remember every

word he said how Romy was always smiling

how her positive energy brightened every

room she entered her tight bond with her

siblings of course his determination to

bring her home alive and Unthinkable 14

months later Romy gonan now 24 along

with a dozen other young Israeli men and

women has finally returned from the

depths of the Hamas tunnels to her

family's loving Embrace alive and whole

once again brightening the room both

hers and those of countless Jewish

families around the world a brief moment

of elation relief and light in a time of

unbearable

darkness and there in lies the

complexity joy and Terror gratitude and

fury comfort and angst all these

conflicting and contradictory emotions

swirling around us all at once the night

Romy Emily deari and donon Stein Breer

came home I was at dinner with friends

and one of them began to cry not tears

of joy but of frustration or maybe

futility yes the reunions were

ecstatically wonderful but the big

picture remains so Grim dozens of

hostages still captive thousands of

armed terrorists flooding the streets of

Gaza triumphant millions of Palestinians

still being raised to hate their Jewish

neighbors who could be happy at a time

like

this it actually reminds me of a Kobe

Bryant moment as many things often do

after after winning game two of the 2009

NBA Finals presumably a moment of

Celebration he arrived for his press

conference completely stone-faced and he

was asked by an incredulous reporter

aren't you happy to which Kobe responded

what's there to be happy about job's not

finished job finished I don't think

so this is an impossibly complicated

moment to process there are layers upon

layers of powerful emotions sprouting

like weeds from each element of this

imaginable experience we are jubilant at

the return of these young women some

literally snatched from their beds in

their pajamas over 470 days ago and yet

we are Furious as we watch them forc to

Dawn fake military Garb smile and wave

to the camera to grease the wheels of

the anti-israel propaganda machine that

so many islamists and useful idiots in

the west hungrily consume we celebrate

their return and shudder to think of

what they've been forced to endure day

after wretched day for so many long

months we celebrate their return and

scream at the Injustice of it all that

they were so violently taken to begin

with that so many remain still in

captivity that many have already died

there we celebrate their return and rage

at the world for not caring enough for

lacking the moral Clarity and courage to

demand their release long

ago we celebrate their return Embrace

ourselves for the future Untold Horrors

that may befall us at the hands of the

dozens of newly freed murderers and

terrorists including one who planned a

23 bus bombing that my friend sari

survived while 17 other passengers did

not we celebrate their return and pray

desperately that the others will return

too even as we learn the horrible news

that eight of the innocent people on the

list are already

dead we celebrate their return and

wonder in agony why it took so long who

else might have been saved if Israel had

hit harder if Netanyahu had moved faster

if there hadn't been a US presidential

election if if if we celebrate an end to

the fighting a desperately needed respit

for both sides for Israel a nation

enduring the longest war of its

existence even as we grimly understand

that more fighting is now assured more

Israeli Sons and Daughters will be

forced to leave their families and put

their lives on the line more Palestinian

civilian I will be cavalierly thrown

into Harm's Way as the true villains

hide underground more anti-jew and

anti-israel haters around the world will

gleefully rejoin the fry if they've even

left it at all when I interviewed former

deputy mayor of Jerusalem Flor Hassan

AUM back in episode 5 she said she

wanted a conclusive end to the war to

hamas's Reign once and for all so that

in 5 years when her son turns 18 it

won't be his turn to go to war Humanity

has failed Flor and her son and every

family like theirs though of course who

knows what the next five years will

bring I have no words of wisdom for you

today my friends I can only offer

validation whatever you are feeling

right now is right all of it it is an

unbelievably up situation

Hezbollah is weakened Syria collapsed

Iran in Retreat and yet Hamas terrorists

proudly walk the streets of Gaza as

thousands returned to the north

territory over which so many Palestinian

and Israeli lives were lost and for what

was any of it worth it was any of it

right yes and no so give yourself some

Grace honor your feelings whatever they

might be and know that someone somewhere

is feeling the exact same way however

impossible that jumble of feelings may

be to describe as has been the case with

each chapter of this nightmare Saga at

least we are in this together and if

that doesn't brighten your day maybe

thinking about Romy and her family will