By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
Monday, October 13, 2025 is what I refer to as a “Day of Days.” There are events, breaking news, and endless film clips that serve to embroider into my being memories that I shall take to my grave, and the return of the hostages to what the Hebrew language calls eretz Israel, or in English, the land of Israel, is certainly one of them.
Backing up two years, in 2023 on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, I wrote a Publisher’s Point commemorating the tragic and ultimately triumphant event that occurred when I was 20. It was simply called, The Miracles of the Yom Kippur War, and believe me, there were many miracles resulting once again in the supernatural preservation of the State of Israel. I remember having an eerie feeling that it was “too quiet,” and that all hell was going to break loose, and it did the next day. We are all too familiar with what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called “the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” and it has rightly been called by Bibi a “day that will live forever in infamy,” a nod to FDR’s speech regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor. It has been said that if you were going to compare relative population sizes of our nations, what happened in 2023 is tantamount to someone killing 40,000 American citizens in a single day.
Sobering stuff, this. And, if we don’t consider, remember and protect the memory of how egregious the 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel truly was, then we won’t be able to celebrate what I hope is “peace breaking out in the Middle East” to the fullest. For my part, if I had not just seen the film The Dragon’s Prophecy and watch a young Hamas terrorist calling his parents in real time on his cell phone to tell them that he had just “killed ten Jews with my bare hands,” and then have the proud parents respond with the Arabic equivalent of “Way to go, son,” I don’t think Monday’s hostage release would have meant quite as much to me.
So, focusing on Monday’s miracle, the only way I can convey to you the personal impact of this “Day of Days” is to try to describe a clip filmed by the Israeli Defense Force of one of the reunions. A young man, perhaps in his late 20s/early 30s walked into a hallway where he was lovingly ambushed by two guys that I assume were family. The just-liberated man was wrapped in the Israeli flag, and it was the group hug of all time. However, what got me the most was a woman, perhaps a relative, who came into the same hallway, waiting her turn to “have at him.” She somehow offloaded her joy by literally jumping up and down until she could launch into her now-former-hostage-family member’s arms. Launch she did, and to date I cannot think or talk about it dry-eyed.
What will happen next? I don’t know. I do know that according to Scripture, there will certainly be a final battle that will end with the return of Yeshua, but for now I choose to celebrate unashamedly. For now, the words of President Trump to the Knesset are perfect:
After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace.
Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem until it is no longer necessary.
