We can’t bring ourselves to acknowledge what is too unfathomable to acknowledge.
Reports from the media were alight with headlines about the details of the planned return of dead hostages on Thursday, as declared by Hamas on Tuesday.
But here at home, we closed the ranks, muted what we probably expected to be true and have expected for quite a while, and sent a virtual embrace to the people involved.
We were also unusually quiet and cautious because we couldn’t bring ourselves to part from the beautiful, innocent faces who have become like family to all Israelis over the last 16 months.
Headlines and reports on TV and radio throughout the country have treated the revelations with sensitivity and grace. Because there’s nobody in Israel who hasn’t been damaged and changed by the death and anguish and doesn’t see themselves in those faces, who have become the emblem of hope and the badge of horror in this war.
A crumb of hope remains
Thursday will come soon enough, and we’ll know. But for now, we can still look at those faces, and hold a crumb of hope that the reports prove to be wrong. Let’s wait one more day before the inevitable headlines blare out with the bad news.
We can’t bring ourselves to acknowledge that the unfathomable may have arrived.
So we won’t... for as long as we can.