They Asked for a Ceasefire. Then Disappeared.

Hope in Israel. Hypocrisy abroad. We see who really wanted peace.

Israel feels lighter today. Not loud. Lighter. People smile, then catch themselves. Everyone knows the drill. Wait for the helicopters. Wait for names. Then dance.

Hope is back on the table. So is anger.

The hope is simple. May the living walk out. May families receive the dead with honor. May we stitch together a Shabbat without sirens. Israelis carry that hope with both hands.

The anger is aimed where it belongs. At the mobs that demanded “ceasefire now” and then vanished when a ceasefire arrived. No rallies for the hostages. No posters saying “Welcome home.” No joy at lives saved. Just quiet. Because the show ended. Because the machine that feeds on Jewish grief ran out of fresh footage. Because they no longer had the same libels to rely on to call for the eradication of the Jewish people.

This silence indicts the whole enterprise. The campus groups, the celebrity sermonizings, the NGOs that speak in UN dialect. They did not want peace. They wanted Israel broken. They wanted more Jews dead. When the deal moved from chant to fact, they checked out. You do not get to posture as a peacemaker and then go mute when captives come home.

Israelis do not have that luxury. The country has learned the hard lessons by paying the bill. We can all recognize a pause when we see one. A pause is not peace. It is a comma that can turn into a sentence if the other side wants life more than death. Hamas still sells death. It is already boasting that its guns are not on the table. Idiocy. Fine. We know what that means. We will be ready. This time we have learnt our lessons about containment.

The same week the marching stopped, the mask slipped in other places. UN offices kept laundering Hamas numbers. UNRWA’s rot spread into new scandals. Diplomats played games with consulates in Jerusalem. The “recognizers” of “Palestine” pretended sovereignty is a press release. Here is a test they dodge: if you insist “Palestine” is a state, haul it into court for the genocide it planned and filmed on October 7. If you won’t, spare us the talk about law. If you cannot weaponize the UN and ICC against Israel, you don’t use it? Maybe its past time we just shutter those institutions as irredeemably corrupt.

Inside Gaza, the fantasy of a united public fell apart on cue. Clans raised rifles against Hamas. Aid still “disappeared.” Weddings glowed while tent camps waited. A few brave Arab voices told the truth. More should try it. The world might surprise them and listen.

So where does that leave us?

Celebrate when our people step off the helicopter. Without apology. Name the dead and honor them. Demand facts when cowards fudge numbers. Refuse the lie that paints Jews as colonizers in Judea. Push governments to protect Jewish kids on campus and in the street. Do not normalize a world where “from the river to the sea” gets a permit and a stipend.

And yes, keep guard. Israel is strong enough to enforce quiet. The question is whether anyone on the other side can sign and then keep a single promise. We have not met that person yet. We are not obligated to pretend he exists.

Two more notes.

First, to the chorus that went silent: history sees you. It saw you cheer a pogrom and call it resistance. It now sees you staring at your shoes while families wait by hospital doors. Keep your scarves. Fold your flags. Your cause exposed itself. We will remember.

Second, for those building instead of burning: stay close. Read widely. Support the work that keeps memory sharp and arguments honest. If you want the daily ground truth, Israel Brief will keep showing up, six days a week, no spin. If you want the larger frame for why a ceasefire is a comma, not an ending, Holiday From History makes the case without euphemism.

Hope walks beside anger today. Both are earned. Hold the first tight. Aim the second well.

When the buses roll, we will sing. If the enemy reloads, we will act. Peace is not a wish. It is a decision enforced by people who refuse to lie about what they face.

Am Yisrael chai.