Today, Israelis are celebrating the 77th independence day of the State of Israel, the reborn nation state of the Jewish people. This year, as last, our celebrations are muted as we remain deeply traumatized by the barbaric massacre Hamas carried out on Oct. 7 and the war we have been forced to fight as a result.
As long as 59 hostages — some alive, others already murdered in captivity — remain held by Hamas in Gaza, the scars of Oct. 7 cannot begin to heal. Their families are desperate. Those whose loved ones are dead need them home, to bury them, to mourn, and to rebuild their lives that have been on hold for 18 months.
The families of living hostages endure anguish every minute of every day. We know from returned hostages that those still in captivity are subjected to beatings, torture, and starvation. Hamas psychologically tortures their families further by releasing twisted propaganda videos featuring their loved ones. It is an ongoing war crime and people of conscience the world over need to scream from the rafters to demand their release.
Among the hostages is Edan Alexander, 21, an American citizen. I know that patriotic Americans — from the president on down — cannot stand by while a fellow citizen is held captive by a depraved and psychopathic terrorist organization. As long as Edan and 58 other Israelis remain kidnapped, our nation feels a deep hole in its collective heart.
Anyone who wants this war to end must do everything possible to bring the hostages home. Hamas could release them immediately, without any deal. If it cared at all about its own people, it would. If it valued Palestinian lives even a fraction as much as Israelis value ours, it would act. Instead, it launched a brutal attack, knowing it would bring yet another self-inflicted tragedy upon the Palestinians.
Every returned hostage I have spoken to has said the same thing: the Hamas terrorists who held them do not care about human life. Their highest goal is death through jihad; every death is, to them, a martyrdom to be replaced by the next.
Contrast that with Israel, whose founding we celebrate today. Our culture celebrates life. L’chaim — to life — we say when toasting. “Whoever saves a life saves the world entire,” the Talmud teaches.
Israel exists to save Jewish lives. That is why, in previous deals, Israel has released some 30 Palestinian prisoners — including convicted murderers — for every Israeli hostage freed. And that is why, despite the cost and the risk of incentivizing future kidnappings, the overwhelming majority of Israelis have supported those exchanges and continue to do so.
For centuries, Jews have faced persecution, violence, and mass murder. Oct. 7 showed that even with our own sovereign state, Jew-haters still want to murder and brutalize us. The difference with previous antisemitic massacres, whether the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, the Farhud pogrom in Iraq in 1941, or the Nazi Holocaust itself, is that today we have the means to defend ourselves.
Within hours of the Oct. 7 attack, a Jewish army was in the field, rescuing civilians and engaging the enemy. Jewish soldiers pulled Jewish children from hiding and brought them to safety. That is what Israel means. It is a scar on our national soul that Hamas was able to murder as many as 1,200 people, but make no mistake: their intentions were, and remain, genocidal.
So too are those of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which backs Hamas and seeks nuclear weapons to dominate the Middle East, spread global chaos, and pursue Israel’s destruction. But for Iran, Oct. 7 has backfired. In its aftermath, Hezbollah has been decimated, the Assad regime in Syria has fallen, and Iran’s own missile bombardments on Israel were thwarted by Israel and its allies. Meanwhile, Israel has shown resilience; its GDP rising despite the war and projected to rise further.
The essence of Israel remains today what it was 77 years ago: to sanctify life, to protect the Jewish people, and to enable them to thrive. Our highest priority at this moment is the release of the 59 remaining hostages. Without them, we are incomplete. For Israel’s birthday, the greatest gift the world could give us is to keep up the pressure on all parties to do whatever it takes to bring them home.
To that we would say: l’chaim. To life.
Tishby is a two-time New York Times best-selling author and served as Israel’s first-ever special envoy for combating antisemitism. Tishby recently founded Eighteen to combat antisemitism and inspire Jewish pride.
