{"id":261356,"date":"2026-01-28T06:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261356\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:21:13","slug":"the-blogs-now-i-can-remove-my-hostage-pin-james-ogunleye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261356\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blogs: Now I Can Remove My Hostage Pin | James Ogunleye"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tAfter 844 days, Israel closes a wound \u2013 without forgetting it<\/p>\n

It has been a long time coming. But it is finally here.\n<\/p>\n

The body of the last Israeli hostage from October 7 \u2013 Ran Gvili, Police Master Sgt., has returned home. Returned to Israel. Returned to his family. Returned for a burial worthy of a hero.\n<\/p>\n

What a relief \u2013 at last. Relief for Ran Gvili\u2019s parents and siblings. Relief for a nation that has been holding its breath for 844 days. And, for me, something quieter but deeply personal: relief that allows me, finally, to remove my hostage pin.\n<\/p>\n

I never wore it lightly.\n<\/p>\n

A few months after the October 7 massacre \u2013 what I called then, and still call, a mini-Holocaust \u2013 I had the privilege of teaching a master\u2019s-level class in innovation and entrepreneurship at College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon LeZion, Israel\u2019s first non-profit institution of higher education.\n<\/p>\n

The country was still raw. Campuses were quieter than usual. Faces older than their years.\n<\/p>\n

After the two-hour session, I stayed behind to speak with students. Many were IDF reservists. Some were active-duty. All were carrying something heavier than coursework.\n<\/p>\n

One woman approached me. Calm. Composed. She handed me a yellow hostage pin.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter made this,\u201d she said, almost casually. \u201cIt is my pleasure to give it to you. And thank you \u2013 for your support, and for your love for Israel.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

I was moved beyond words. This was a student from a college that had lost 20 students to the massacre. Others had lost siblings, parents, friends. And yet she stood there, offering gratitude.\n<\/p>\n

That pin stayed with me. On my jacket. In my thoughts. As a reminder that this was not abstract. It was personal \u2013 for all of us.\n<\/p>\n

Today, I can finally take it off.\n<\/p>\n

At exactly 5:30 p.m., the iconic countdown clock at Hostages Square stopped. After 844 days. More than 20,250 hours. Over 1.2 million minutes. More than 72 million seconds.\n<\/p>\n

Time had been counting even when life felt frozen. For the first time since 2014, Israel woke up with no hostages held in Gaza.\n<\/p>\n

Let that sink in.\n<\/p>\n

Ran Gvili\u2019s body was the first taken \u2013 and the last to return. He went in first. He came out last. And now, he is home.\n<\/p>\n

There is something unbearably sad about that symmetry. And something quietly redemptive too.\n<\/p>\n

I listened carefully to the words of Ran\u2019s mother. \u201cOur pride,\u201d she said, \u201cis much, much stronger than our pain.\u201d That sentence captures something essential about Israel.\n<\/p>\n

Pain here is never denied. But neither is pride. The two coexist \u2013 sometimes uneasily \u2013 but always honestly.\n<\/p>\n

Ran Gvili was killed defending Kibbutz Alumim. Even with a broken shoulder, he put on his police uniform and ran toward danger. That is not mythology. That is character.\n<\/p>\n

And character, ultimately, is what this long saga tested most.\n<\/p>\n

Much has been written, and will still be written, about October 7 as a failure of leadership, intelligence, preparedness. Those debates are legitimate and necessary.\n<\/p>\n

But there is another truth that must also be stated clearly.\n<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s leadership made a promise: every hostage would come home \u2013 alive or not.\n<\/p>\n

And that promise has now been kept.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tLight over Ben Gurion: the control tower glows with a simple truth Israel waited 844 days to say \u2013 \u201cEveryone is Home.\u201d (Image: YouTube screenshot)<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Ran Gvili\u2019s return \u201can extraordinary achievement.\u201d He removed his hostage pin in the Knesset, saying simply: \u201cWe promised. And we delivered.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Opposition leaders did the same. President Herzog did the same. Across the Israel, people paused \u2013 some in tears, some in silence \u2013 to mark a moment that was both among the happiest and saddest in Israel\u2019s recent history.\n<\/p>\n

Credit is also due beyond Israel\u2019s borders.\n<\/p>\n

United States President Donald Trump played a decisive role in the negotiations that led to the release of all remaining hostages \u2013 first the living, and now, finally, the last of the fallen. Diplomacy is rarely clean. But outcomes matter. And this outcome matters profoundly.\n<\/p>\n

For the families, closure is not healing \u2013 but it is the beginning of it.\n<\/p>\n

Some will say: Hamas is not destroyed. Others will say: Gaza\u2019s future remains unresolved. Both are true. But there were two core war aims after October 7. One was to dismantle Hamas. That work is unfinished. The other was to bring every hostage home.\n<\/p>\n

That goal \u2013 mercifully, painfully, finally \u2013 has been achieved.\n<\/p>\n

And without that, Israel could not truly begin to heal. National trust could not be rebuilt. The social contract could not be repaired.\n<\/p>\n

A country that leaves even one of its people behind is a country that fractures internally.\n<\/p>\n

This is why the return of Ran Gvili matters so deeply. It is not only about him \u2013 though it is, first and foremost, about him. It is about a principle older than any government: Israel does not abandon her own.\n<\/p>\n

Taking off the hostage pin does not mean forgetting October 7. It does not mean moving on lightly. It does not mean closure without accountability. It means something more subtle \u2013 and more Israeli. It means acknowledging that a chapter, however painful, has reached its final line.\n<\/p>\n

Now the work of resilience and renewal truly begins.\n<\/p>\n

Resilience, not as a slogan, but as lived reality: families rebuilding trust, soldiers returning to civilian life, communities stitching themselves back together.\n<\/p>\n

Renewal, not by erasing memory, but by carrying it forward \u2013 wiser, more sober, more determined.\n<\/p>\n

And yes, this too is part of innovating the future of Israel: a nation that learns, adapts, mourns honestly, and still insists on life.\n<\/p>\n

My last thought<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tYours truly in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv<\/p>\n

I think again of that student. Of her daughter. Of the pin made by a child who had already learned more about grief than any child should.\n<\/p>\n

That pin was a promise passed from hand to hand.\n<\/p>\n

Today, the promise has been honored. The clock has stopped. Ran Gvili is home. And Israel, scarred but standing, can finally exhale.\n<\/p>\n

May his memory be a blessing. May his family know no more sorrow. And may Israel never again need a clock to count such days.\n<\/p>\n

Now, quietly, respectfully, I remove my pin.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 844 days, Israel closes a wound \u2013 without forgetting it It has been a long time coming.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-261356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}