The long nightmare is over

(JNS) — After 843 days, Israel laid to rest the body of 24-year-old Ran Gvili, the final hostage held in Gaza. With his return last week, a promise made in the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, has been fulfilled: No Jew taken by force would be left behind.

This moment is not about closure; it is also about agency.

Oct. 7 was not only an act of mass murder, but an attempt to reorder Jewish history by force, to return Jews to a familiar role as hunted subjects. The brutality was deliberate, the spectacle intentional, and the message unmistakable. Hamas believed Jewish endurance would fracture under su...