Yesterday, we shared Yoni Bloch’s now viral song and music video, “Good End,” which envisions an Israel at peace, a region united, a future radically different from our difficult present. As we noted, it has taken Israel by storm.

In the video above, Aviva Siegel’s daughter, Shir (to whom Aviva refers as “Shirkush”), filmed her mother watching that same video. As you may recall, Aviva was released in the first hostage exchange, some 50 days after October 7, while her husband, Keith, is still a hostage in Hamas captivity.

Shir posted the above video. It doesn’t need much commentary.

“It simply has to happen,” Aviva says. She’s right. Keith (and the others) simply need to come home.

According to rumors, Keith may be the third hostage to be released this Thursday.

I urge you to watch this very brief clip of a longer interview that Aviva gave not long ago to Marc Beckman.

And then try to make the time to watch the entire video below. Her descriptions of how the captors treated them and what they went through even in the first hours and days of captivity is stunning—and reminds us of why everything single one of them needs to get out.

Watch it, and keep in mind that even if this deal goes through, there will still be sixty something hostages left in Hamas’ brutal hands.

“It will happen, Mom, it will happen,” Shir says to her mother.

We can only pray that by Friday, for this one family, hell will have ended.

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Last week, I shared a video of Columbia University, at which some pro Palestinian protesters had entered a class on Israel, interrupted, posted materials and violated the most fundamental norms of behavior for an academic institution.

I remarked that from the video, it appeared that the professor had done nothing while they were there. It turns out that that was not correct, and I’m grateful to a senior administrator at Columbia for reaching out and filling me in.

First, I didn’t recognize the professor as Avi Shilon, the author of a superb biography of Menachem Begin (in addition to other works, who was also enormously helpful to me as I was writing my own book on Begin).

Second, it turns out there was an exchange between Shilon and the protestors, about which you can read in these two places, among others:

…. and this article in the Times of Israel:

Columbia has so far suspended one student, pending a fuller investigation. Whether the University will do the right thing and permanently expel all the students who were involved obviously remains to be seen.

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