From BGU President following the signing of the agreement

Dear Friends,

Two years ago, on October 7, 2023, at 2:12 PM Israel time, I wrote you the first of these messages:

“As many of you are aware from the media, early this morning, on Simchat Torah and Shabbat, Hamas initiated a comprehensive attack on Israel.
As the situation continues to evolve, it is with a heavy heart that we note the significant casualties, particularly in the Sderot region and its surroundings.
We recognize the anguish of being distant from Israel during these testing times. Please be assured that Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is in continuous coordination with security authorities to ensure the utmost protection for our faculty and students.
We commit to keeping you informed as events progress.”

That “commitment” has since become 69 personal updates. This is number 70.

This morning, I woke up abroad to the extraordinary news that a deal has been reached for the return of the remaining hostages—those alive to rehabilitation, and those murdered to burial—and for an end to the war. Like many Israelis, I find it difficult to process such historic moments from afar. We Israelis instinctively want to experience them collectively.

Digesting this turn of events is both a relief and a destabilization. Looking back, the naivety of some of my earliest letters is striking—such as the pledge that classes would only resume when all reservists returned. Who could have imagined that this nightmare would last two years?

One lesson from these letters still resonates: resilience is embracing complexity. We can be both strong and broken. Today I am both relieved and tense—relieved that a deal has been reached, tense as we wait for its full implementation.

Politically, too, we must embrace complexity. David Ben-Gurion taught us the value of  ממלכתיות(mamlachtiyut) — the idea that at critical moments, national responsibility must rise above party or personal loyalties. Whether or not one supports President Trump in other areas, we must recognize his role in brokering this agreement. Whether or not one supports Prime Minister Netanyahu, we must acknowledge his decision to step back from “total victory” and accept the deal. ממלכתיות means setting aside divisions to honor the achievement itself, for the sake of the nation, and above all, for the sake of those returning home.

Where there is no complexity is in our joy at the return of the hostages. For BGU this means welcoming back our graduate, Avinatan Orr, the partner of Noa Argamani, and bringing home the bodies of Nili Margalit’s father, Eliyahu z”l, and of Sahar Baruch z”l, who was murdered in captivity and should have been beginning his third year of engineering studies.

We also celebrate the return of our students and staff from prolonged reserve duty, though their studies will still be interwoven with new service obligations. We cannot be naïve: just as the Vietnam War did not end for its veterans when the guns fell silent, our students will need months, if not years, to recover lost time and to heal. We are committed to giving them every support.

Above all, we will remember the 119 members of our community who were murdered on October 7 or who fell in the ensuing battles. Their memory will remain part of us as we move forward.

We have many wounds to heal, both visible and invisible. Campus life will be different, but our core values remain unchanged. Those I shared in December 2023 still guide us today. The present agreement gives us the gift of time: time to heal, time to rebuild, and time to aspire to greatness.

Hoping that the signing of the agreement is truly a new beginning,
Danny