With unbridled joy and uneasy hearts, a nation welcomes its daughters back from captivity

Photos: Flash90, AP Images

Everyone seems to agree that it’s a terrible deal — the price too high, the danger too threatening, victory morphing into surrender, the lives of soldiers sacrificed in vain. But one look at those young women embracing their families after 15 months in a Hamas dungeon somehow mutes the arguments. We went from the Gevruah Forum to Hostage Square to Sheba, following the unfolding drama together with a nation in tears

When the whirring of the helicopter approaching Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan cut through the Sunday afternoon air, dozens of international journalists, a handful of patients, and a group of volunteers holding a “Welcome Home” sign exchanged glances, smiles and cheers  but few words.

No more needed to be said.

After 471 days in Hamas captivity, Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher were finally safe.

Just hours before, photos of them reunited with their families and loved ones had circulated madly, but the whir of the helicopter blades made it official: They were here, they would receive care, and after so much pain, their nightmare was finally over.

The almost wordless greeting told a story all of its own. After a week of intense national debate about the excruciating dilemma of war versus hostages, future loss of life weighed against those in immediate danger, the end was very simple.

With three women plucked from the jaws of death, who had the heart to argue?

That last reference was crucial, because over the course of days of reporting on the public reaction to the unfolding hostage deal, there was an evolution in thinking as hearts and minds grappled with the agonizing choice.

Outrage on the right led to muted acceptance of the high price paid; anti-Trump sentiment on the left became grudging respect for a distant president who had sealed the deal.

But all agreed that it was a terrible deal, leaving Hamas to toy with Israel’s emotions for 42 days — and many hostages with little hope of the joyous homecoming that we’d just seen.