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watched their former captors 
drowning in the depths of the 
sea after attempting to bring 
them back into captivity, again 
without having to fight for 
their freedom.
In a time span so short as to 
be inconceivably disorienting, 
the Israelites went through 
changes that would have taken 
a lifetime to absorb. They wit-
nessed supernatural plagues, 
were freed from 400 years of 
bondage, watched God per-
form the ultimate miracle of 
splitting the sea, and received 
their own version of total vic-
tory as their tormentors were 
killed in an instant. 
And in all of this, they were 
passive observers, having 
brought none of this about 
themselves but having it thrust 
upon them. Is it any wonder 
that as soon as the maelstrom 
was over, they immediately 
turned into a disorganized, 
squabbling mess? Three days 
after the parting of the sea, 
they were already grumbling 
about water. One month after 
leaving Egypt, they initiated 
their first rebellion, telling 
Moses that it would have been 
better to remain there. 
The first year after leaving 
slavery and having unprece-
dented miracles performed on 
their behalf continued with 
more insistence that it would 
have been better to have 
died or remained as slaves, 
numerous rebellions against 
Moses and his leadership, 
the rejection of God’s mono-
theism with the building of 
the golden calf, and finally a 
Divine decree that they would 
wander the desert for 40 years 
until the entire generation that 
had left Egypt died out. 
The Exodus was the ulti-
mate success story, but its 
aftermath was the ultimate 
failure. The Israelites expe-

rienced a massive transfor-
mative event and saw things 
nobody could have ever imag-
ined and were ill-equipped to 
deal with what would come 
next.

LET MY PEOPLE GO
Israel went through its greatest 
trauma on Oct. 7. Israelis were 
killed and taken hostage in 
numbers that remain incon-
ceivable, and it was done in 
the blink of an eye, with no 
warning and no way to pre-
pare for what was thrust upon 
the entire country. 
 Like the ancient Israelites, 
Israelis were passive observers 
to an event that upended their 
lives, but unlike the story in 
the Bible, this was not one of 
salvation but of horror. 
And what has transpired 
since has in many ways been a 
disaster, as the Israeli govern-
ment appears to flail around 
without a sense of how to put 
things right. The majority of 
those abducted are still being 
held in Gaza, with real fears 
that the dead far outnumber 
the living. Israel has not suc-
ceeded in eliminating Hamas’ 
military capabilities. The lack 

of a plan for Gaza has created a 
vacuum of anarchy into which 
Hamas is once again stepping 
and beginning to reimpose 
its own order. Palestinians 
have been killed by the tens of 
thousands, and the millions 
still in Gaza are experiencing 
a humanitarian crisis of dire 
proportion. Until Iran foolishly 
rallied much of the world and 
the region to Israel’s side with 
its missile and drone assault, 
Israel was under unprecedent-
ed diplomatic assault. There 
are precious few successes, and 
failures nearly everywhere you 
look.
But the Israelites’ story did 
not end in failure, and neither 
will Israel’s. The Israelites’ 
travails were not solved with 
their freedom from Egypt; 
the story’s happy ending at 
the Promised Land did not 
come until they had made 
too many mistakes to count. 
It came after they adapted to 
their circumstances, learned 
how to respond to the chal-
lenges of finding water in the 
wilderness and fending off 
enemies, organized themselves 
into tribes with different 
duties and obligations to the 

larger whole, and absorbed an 
entire new system of laws and 
customs. The Israelites had 
to establish themselves anew, 
and there were no shortcuts to 
the process. Their success was 
not a result of miracles and 
haste, but of perseverance and 
patience. The Passover story 
was a trauma with a positive 
result, but it was still a trauma, 
and an historically epic one at 
that. It took time to recover 
and right the ship, and they 
had to do the hard work of 
righting it themselves.
Israel will recover, too. 
Israelis and Jews around the 
world are expecting miracles, 
but even miracles don’t solve 
all problems. Israel has made 
many mistakes since Oct. 
7 and there will be more to 
come, and it is often difficult 
to find the spark of hope we 
all want. The story will not 
have a perfectly happy ending, 
but Israel will find its way. 
It requires more patience 
from all of us, as difficult as 
that is, and it will require a 
new generation of leadership, 
a new way of thinking, a new 
way of responding to chal-
lenges. It took the Israelites 
40 years to get things right, 
and Israel cannot afford to 
take that long. But a Passover 
story lesson for this year is 
that while trauma leaves deep 
scars, even when things are at 
their darkest, they will turn 
back up again with some 
forbearance. 
May we all have the 
patience and fortitude 
required to get through what 
has been and remains a dark 
time, and the patience and 
fortitude required to work 
toward the salvation ahead. 
 

Michael Koplow is Israel Policy 

Forum’s Chief Policy Officer, based in 

Washington, D.C.

Hostage 
Square

