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A time to sob, and to dance: Why does the joy of the hostage release feel so painful?
For 737 days, the people of Israel — and Jews around the world — hoped and prayed for the moments of bliss we witnessed on Monday, as the last living hostages returned from Gaza and reunited with their families and their nation.
For just over two years, many of us found that the joys of life could not feel whole. On holidays, at weddings and on vacations, there was an aching sense that until the hostages returned, it would be impossible to experience pure, unfiltered happiness.
Yet now that this long-awaited moment is here, our joy is tinged with sadness.
We feel that sadness because we know that it will take years for the hostages to recover from the unfathomable cruelty they endured in Gaza, and because perhaps they could have come home sooner. We feel it because 42 of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, were killed in captivity. Hamas has so far failed to return the remains of many of those hostages, robbing their families of the closure they so desperately need.
Our joy is mixed with profound sadness because we lost two years to a war that should never have started — a war that was launched in the name of resistance and liberation, yet has ended with the total destruction of Gaza. That was precisely what Hamas wanted: to commit such a horrific massacre that Israel would react with unprecedented force, resulting in global condemnation and Israel’s isolation.
Our joy this week is also tainted by anger, because Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught was entirely preventable, as many Israeli investigations have made painfully clear. We feel that anger because Hamas is still in control of Gaza. We know that true peace is nowhere near.
There is also an overwhelming sense that all this devastation could have been avoided, had Israel heeded ample warnings of plans for an invasion by terrorists from Gaza — who had made clear for years their desire to annihilate Israel — and made serious military plans to combat it.
These joyous days are mixed with sorrow for these reasons, and so many more. We are still grieving the nearly 1,200 lives that were so violently extinguished by Hamas’s massacre. And we grieve, also, for the countless others whose lives were forever changed by the horrors of that day — those who were wounded, lost their lives during the war in Gaza, and lost loved ones and beloved communities.
We are still mourning an Israel that will never again be the Israel it was: a place where Jewish families did not fear being hunted down and slaughtered in their homes. And we are mourning a world that is not what we thought it was.
For many in the diaspora who feel close to Israel, everything changed after Oct. 7. We lost friendships, and sometimes entire communities. We felt betrayed by professions that once gave us a sense of belonging.
We will not forget the protests against Israel that erupted on city streets and college campuses on Oct. 8, 2023, when dead bodies still littered the streets of southern Israel. Nor will we forget the many people who praised Hamas’s massacre as noble resistance.
We will always carry with us the memory of posters bearing hostages’ faces being torn down in American and European cities by people who described them as “Zionist propaganda” or worse. We will never forget the images of the atrocities those activists denied or justified.
As an independent journalist who reported from Israel for dozens of American newspapers and magazines for more than a decade, I have felt betrayed by the profession I belonged to until 2023.
This week I have watched — no longer in shock, but in despair — as many news organizations drew a false equivalence between Hamas’s release of 20 hostages and Israel’s release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including 250 who were serving life sentences. The BBC, for example, ran an emotional segment featuring the sister of a released Palestinian prisoner, weeping because he will be deported rather than return home; the segment fails to mention that her brother was convicted in connection to a suicide bombing that killed four people. Then there are the Al Jazeera English stories describing Palestinian prisoners as “captives.”
And it’s not just the hostage release. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was made to apologize after saying on-air that the Israeli hostages in Gaza were “probably being treated better than the average Gazan” during the war.
Even as this war comes to an end, we are seeing the same distortions of truth that have characterized public conversations about this war from the very beginning. Their persistence suggests the relief we hoped to feel at this point remains far off.
Too many institutions I once held in esteem have fallen prey to those distortions. There’s the literary world, which has broadly censored Jewish authors and boycotted Israeli cultural institutions; women’s rights organizations, such as U.N. Women, which took months to condemn Hamas’s use of sexual violence on Oct. 7, or the others that never did; the medical field, which has seen an alarming rise in antisemitism; and universities, where the surge in antisemitism has been fueled by some professors who seem to have deliberately indoctrinated students into believing that Israel’s very existence is a crime.
Yet one of the most vital lessons from this chapter in our people’s history is that we cannot allow the hatred of our enemies to define us, or to shake our conviction in what we know to be true.
As the awe-inspiring Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of the murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, so aptly explained at a rally in Jerusalem two nights before the living hostages returned: “There is a time to sob, and there is a time to dance, and we have to do both right now.”
Sob and dance we will. Perhaps for years to come.
The post A time to sob, and to dance: Why does the joy of the hostage release feel so painful? appeared first on The Forward.
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Iran Opposes Grossi’s UN Secretary-General Candidacy, Accuses Him of Failing to Uphold International Law
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi holds a press conference on the opening day of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl
Iran has publicly opposed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi’s potential appointment as UN Secretary-General next year, accusing him of failing to uphold international law by not condemning US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June.
During a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Iran’s Ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, sharply criticized Grossi, calling him unfit” to serve as UN Secretary-General next year, Iranian media reported.
“A candidate who has deliberately failed to uphold the UN Charter — or to condemn unlawful military attacks against safeguarded, peaceful nuclear facilities … undermines confidence in his ability to serve as a faithful guardian of the charter and to discharge his duties independently, impartially, and without political bias or fear of powerful states,” the Iranian diplomat said.
With UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ term ending in December next year, member states have already begun nominating candidates to take over the role ahead of the expected 2026 election.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel’s relationship with Guterres has spiraled downward, reaching a low point last year when then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz labeled the UN “antisemitic and anti-Israeli” and declared Guterres persona non grata after the top UN official failed to condemn Tehran for its ballistic missile attack against the Jewish state.
Last week, Argentina officially nominated Grossi to succeed Guterres as the next UN Secretary-General.
To be elected, a nominee must first secure the support of at least nine members of the UN Security Council and avoid a veto from any of its five permanent members — the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France.
Afterward, the UN General Assembly votes, with a simple majority needed to confirm the organization’s next leader.
As head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog since 2019, Grossi has consistently urged Iran to provide transparency on its nuclear program and cooperate with the agency, efforts the Islamist regime has repeatedly rejected and obstructed.
Despite Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes rather than weapons development, Western powers have said there is no “credible civilian justification” for the country’s nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
With prospects for renewed negotiations or nuclear cooperation dwindling, Iran has been intensifying efforts to rebuild its air and defense capabilities decimated during the 12-day war with Israel.
On Monday, Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), declared that the IAEA has no authority to inspect sites targeted during the June war, following Grossi’s renewed calls for Tehran to allow inspections of its nuclear sites and expand cooperation with the agency.
Iran has also announced plans to expand its nuclear cooperation with Russia and advance the construction of new nuclear power plants, as both countries continue to deepen their bilateral relations.
According to AEOI spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi, one nuclear power plant is currently operational, while other two are under construction, with new contracts signed during a recent high-level meeting in Moscow.
Kamalvandi also said Iran plans to build four nuclear power plants in the country’s southern region as part of its long-term partnership with Russia.
During a joint press conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated Iran’s commitment to defending the country’s “legal nuclear rights” under the now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal, noting that Tehran’s nuclear policies have remained within the international legal framework.
Iran’s growing ties with Russia, particularly in nuclear cooperation, have deepened in recent years as both countries face mounting Western sanctions and seek to expand their influence in opposition to Western powers.
Russia has not only helped Iran build its nuclear program but also consistently defended the country’s “nuclear rights” on the global stage, while opposing the imposition of renewed economic sanctions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described the reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran as a “disgrace to diplomacy.”
In an interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), Lavrov accused European powers of attempting to blame Tehran for the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal, despite what he described as Iran’s compliance with the agreement.
Prior to the 12-day war, the IAEA flagged a series of Iranian violations of the deal.
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Eurovision Host Says It Will Not Drown Out Any Boos During Israel’s Performance
ORF executive producer Michael Kroen attends a press conference about the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, Dec. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisa Leutner
The host broadcaster of the next Eurovision Song Contest, Austria’s ORF, will not ban the Palestinian flag from the audience or drown out booing during Israel’s performance as has happened at previous shows, organizers said on Tuesday.
The 70th edition of the contest in May will have just 35 entries, the smallest number of participants since 2003, after five national broadcasters including those of Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands said they would boycott the show in protest at Israel’s participation.
What is usually a celebration of national diversity, pop music, and high camp has become embroiled in diplomatic strife, with those boycotting saying it would be unconscionable to take part given the number of civilians killed in Gaza during Israel’s military campaign following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
“We will allow all official flags that exist in the world, if they comply with the law and are in a certain form – size, security risks, etc.,” the show’s executive producer, Michael Kroen, told a news conference organized by ORF.
“We will not sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are,” Kroen said.
AUSTRIA SUPPORTED ISRAEL PARTICIPATING
The broadcaster will not drown out the sound of any booing from the crowd, as happened this year during Israel’s performance, ORF’s director of programming Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz said.
“We won’t play artificial applause over it at any point,” she said.
Israel’s 2025 entrant, Yuval Raphael, was at the Nova music festival that was a target of the Hamas-led attack. The CEO of Israeli broadcaster KAN had likened the efforts to exclude Israel in 2026 to a form of “cultural boycott.”
ORF and the Austrian government were among the biggest supporters of Israel participating over the objections of countries including Iceland and Slovenia, which will also boycott the next contest in protest. ORF Director General Roland Weissmann visited Israel in November to show his support.
This year’s show drew around 166 million viewers, according to the European Broadcasting Union, more than the roughly 128 million who Nielsen estimates watched the Super Bowl.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas-led terrorists killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seized 251 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
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Antisemitism Allowed to Fester in Australia, Says Daughter of Wounded Holocaust Survivor
Victoria Teplitsky, daughter of a Holocaust survivor who was wounded at the Bondi shootings, stands at a floral memorial in honor of the victims of the mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jeremy Piper
Government authorities have not done enough to stamp out hatred of Jews in Australia, which has allowed it to fester in the aftermath of Oct. 7, said the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who was wounded at the Bondi shootings on Sunday.
Victoria Teplitsky, 53, a retired childcare center owner, said that the father and son who allegedly went on a 10-minute shooting spree that killed 15 people had been “taught to hate,” which was a bigger factor in the attack than access to guns.
“It’s not the fact that those two people had a gun. It’s the fact that hatred has been allowed to fester against the Jewish minority in Australia,” she told Reuters in an interview.
“We are angry at our government because it comes from the top, and they should have stood up for our community with strength. And they should have squashed the hatred rather than kind of letting it slide,” she said.
“We’ve been ignored. We feel like, are we not Australian enough? Do we not matter to our government?”
The attackers fired upon hundreds of people at a Jewish festival during a roughly 10-minute killing spree, forcing people to flee and take shelter before both were shot by police.
RISING ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS
Antisemitic incidents have been rising in Australia since the war in Gaza erupted after Palestinian terrorist group Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in an attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
A rise in such incidents in the past sixteen months prompted the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that antisemitism was his top priority in terms of threat.
“This was not a surprise to the Jewish community. We warned the government of this many, many times over,” Teplitsky said.
“We’ve had synagogues that have been graffitied, graffiti everywhere, and we’ve had synagogues that have been bombed,” she added, referring to a 2024 arson attack in Melbourne in which no one was killed.
Teplitsky’s father Semyon, 86, bled heavily after being shot in the leg, and now is facing several operations as doctors piece bone back together with cement, then remove the cement from the leg, which he still may lose, she said.
“He’s in good spirits, but he’s also very angry. Angry that this happened, that this was allowed to happen in Australia, the country that he took his children to, to be safe, to be away from antisemitism, to be away from Jew hatred.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “did nothing” to curb antisemitism.
Albanese repeated on Tuesday Australia‘s support for a two-state solution. Anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests have been common in Australia since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza.
At a press briefing on Monday, Albanese read through a list of actions his government had taken, including criminalizing hate speech and incitement to violence and a ban on the Nazi salute. He also pledged to extend funding for physical security for Jewish community groups.