I’ve been a newsman for nearly half a century. I’ve been involved in the coverage of thousands of stories. But I can count on the fingers of one hand the stories that pierced my protective journalist kevlar. Those few stories over the course of almost five decades that touched me like no others.
There was 9/11, of course. Together with mourning all those innocents who perished, it frightened me. How could anyone not be frightened?
Sully Sullenberger, landing that US Airways jet in the Hudson River, saving the 155 souls on board, was another one of those stories. I was exhilarated by his calmness and professionalism.
How about hurricanes Katrina and Sandy? The immense power of Mother Nature awed me and the human and physical damage from those storms, shocked me.
Put the January 6th attack on the Capitol on the list. Those violent desecraters of democracy disgusted me.
How about October 7th, 2023? I was sickened by the unmitigated savagery that was perpetrated on that ugly day and my mind reeled over the depravity of those who gleefully participated.
I’m sure you have your lists as well.
No story, however, not 9/11, not Sullenberger, not the hurricanes nor the January 6th insurrection or even October 7th, dug so deeply into my heart as the freeing, this past week after two years in absolute hell, of the 20 remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
It was thrilling to witness the hostages’ first moments with their loved ones; the wives who waited for their husbands, the mothers and fathers who hadn’t slept for two years worrying about their children; the children who kept asking when was daddy, when was abba, coming home? Finally, they were reunited.
But the emotional explosion we all witnessed from those families, seeing, hearing and feeling their rawness, came crashing down upon me. Their shrieks of joy tore at me. The awful pain they suffered through did not have to happen. It was devised by men to be inflicted upon men.
I also cannot forget the faces of the Israelis who were watching every moment of the hostages’ return home. Pure joy, unrestrained relief. Oppressive darkness gave way to brilliant light. On October 7th, those twenty men were strangers, but this past week, thousands lined the highways and filled the parks, celebrating the homecoming of twenty men who became the sons of an entire nation.
The crowds wrapped themselves in the Israeli flag and waved the stars and stripes in gratitude to the United States.
And what of the essential, indispensable role played by the United States of America and the Office of the President? Donald Trump schooled the other world leaders on how to get a deal done through strength and conviction, not through appeasement and capitulation. He revealed how puny so many of them truly are.
Trump pressured the pusillanimous potentates to force their terrorist friends to fold, to give up their human bargaining chips they so closely held as their aces in the hole.
This incredible, monumental, extraordinary story we all saw unfold this past week is just at the beginning. There is so much more to come, so much more to learn. On the one hand, we know so much of the past two years, but the events of this past week prove we really know so little.
The bits and pieces of the brutal captivity the twenty men endured are just now coming out in dribs and drabs. They were tortured, starved, coerced. We see it in their hollow faces and in their gaunt bodies. At least one hostage was held in such total isolation, he never saw the sky the entire time he was in Hamas hell.
Yes, I want to know every excruciating detail of their captivity, but I profoundly want to understand how they survived. What was the other-worldly strength they tapped into that kept them alive? How did they cling to hope and not succumb to the pure evil showered upon them by their subhuman captors? There is so much more to be revealed, so much more to emerge from behind the blackness of the past two years.
((CNN’s Christiane Amanpour apparently knows. She said that the hostages “probably [were] treated better than the average Gazan because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had.” Can anyone possibly be more despicable? She should be fired!))
The release of the final twenty living Israeli hostages this past week is my story of all stories but as I said, we are just at the beginning of the beginning. There are many more tears to be shed, much more heroism to extol, and most hopefully, lots more moments of joy to fill our hearts.