![Israel must continue to be able to deter Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stressed on Wednesday, speaking amid efforts to reach a ceasefire with Iran's Lebanese terrorist proxy. "We need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations. And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow," the minister told a gathering of nearly 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. A deal to end more than a year of fighting on the northern border must be durable, Sa'ar said, saying Jerusalem “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time." He added that a ceasefire would be an "opportunity" for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty after the Israeli military severely degraded the Iranian-backed group in recent months. He called for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be strengthened and urged the international community to invest more in the economically devastated country, which is drowning in debt following years of mismanagement and corruption. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also emphasized on Wednesday the necessity for Jerusalem to be able to act against any Hezbollah threats that may arise after a ceasefire deal is implemented. “The condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [IDF’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah,” Katz said. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein remained in Beirut for a second day on Wednesday to discuss "technical details" of an American ceasefire proposal with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. President Joe Biden's point man in the Land of the Cedars announced he would travel to Israel on Wednesday night, speaking after he made "additional progress" in a second meeting with Berri. Hochstein was scheduled to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer shortly after his arrival, followed by a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day. “The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.” The Biden envoy added that he will work with the incoming Trump administration on ceasefire efforts, saying that he has kept the president-elect's transition team informed of progress. Hochstein described as "very productive" his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. “We have a real opportunity to end the conflict, and now is the moment to decide. We are committed to doing everything we can to work with Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict,” Hochstein said at a press conference on Tuesday. Hochstein also met on Tuesday with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and he was scheduled to meet with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun. Mikati emphasized that Lebanon’s primary objectives are achieving a ceasefire and safeguarding its sovereignty. He highlighted the need to implement international resolutions and bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces in the southern part of the country. Lebanon delivered its written response to the latest U.S. proposal on Monday. According to Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, the response included “comments” that were “presented in a positive atmosphere.” He did not provide details on the nature of the comments, saying only that they “affirm the precise adherence to [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” according to Reuters. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a speech on Wednesday that the terrorist group had "read the ceasefire proposal. "We have our comments, and Nabih Berri has comments, and ours and the Lebanese government's comments are, Inshallah ['God willing'], identical," Qassem said. "We have decided not to discuss these ceasefire proposals or our comments in the media. All I will say is that Israeli is trying to obtain through negotiations what it couldn't through war." The terrorist leader vowed to “continue our efforts on the ground, whether the negotiations succeed or not. “We are confronting a savage enemy, and we will remain on the ground, no matter the cost, as we will also increase the cost for the enemy. We are facing Israeli human monsters supported by American human monsters,” threatened Qassem. Disarm and retreat Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, stipulated that Hezbollah must disarm and retreat north of the Litani River, but was never enforced. The Litani lies some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. Its enforcement, along with Israeli freedom of operation in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, are the key sticking points in the current negotiations. Netanyahu emphasized during a speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to “return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023. “We will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north, to systematically carry out operations—not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a ceasefire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening,” he said. Hezbollah has launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel. More than 60,000 residents of northern Israel remain internally displaced due to the ongoing rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon. Seventy-six people in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks since the start of the war, including 31 soldiers and six foreign citizens, according to the latest data provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, updated on Sunday. In addition, 729 people have been wounded, including 497 civilians and 232 soldiers. Of these, 29 civilians and 37 soldiers were severely injured; 63 civilians and 38 soldiers were moderately injured and 405 civilians and 157 soldiers were lightly injured. Hezbollah’s leadership has been left in tatters following a series of targeted killings by Israel, including that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sept. 27. This was preceded by Israeli sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices that killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400 members of the terrorist group. Israel has been waging a devastating aerial campaign against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including its stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. According to Israeli estimates, the terrorist group has lost most of its arsenal to the ongoing strikes. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in late October that Hezbollah had lost an estimated 80%-plus of its long-range rockets since the start of the war. Israel also continues to battle Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The terrorist group still holds 101 hostages in the Strip, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Many of the captives are believed to be dead. Brazil summit Meanwhile, G20 leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a summit put out a joint statement on Monday calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies called for U.S. proposals to end fighting in Gaza and free the hostages, and one for Lebanon “that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line.” The 13-point U.S. proposal presented to Lebanese officials on Nov. 14 includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border. The proposal also calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying itself via Syrian land routes. Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River, with the border area then being under control of the Lebanese Armed Forces, overseen by the United States and Britain. Israeli officials are emphasizing, however, that the Israel Defense Forces must retain freedom of operation in Lebanon to thwart attempts by Hezbollah to violate the agreement and rearm and reestablish itself. A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Saturday that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements. However, a source close to Hezbollah told The Washington Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” Berri emphasized at the time that any ceasefire agreement must not include the ability for Israel to attack by land, sea or air, Channel 12 reported. “Otherwise, what’s the purpose of an agreement?” he remarked. Another sticking point is Lebanon’s objection to the United Kingdom and Germany monitoring the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Beirut reportedly favors the United States and France. If the ceasefire efforts fail, there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon, an Israeli military official told the Post. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to his Florida estate earlier this month, as well as with senior Biden administration officials in Washington. Dermer also traveled to Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Tehran is telling its Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah that it supports ending the war against Israel, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut on Nov. 15 to discuss the matter. Two Iranians affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told the Times that Larijani conveyed messages to Hezbollah from Khamenei that he supported the end of the war and that the regime would assist with rebuilding the terrorist group’s forces and recovering from the war.](https://jewishwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gideon-Saar-1320x880-2-218x150.jpg "Sa’ar: Israel must be free to act against Hezbollah truce violations")
The same week Ireland’s Bambie Thug was embarrassing her country at Eurovision, in New York City two Irish investigative journalists premiered the first play about Oct. 7. Not surprisingly, it was difficult to find a theater willing to produce the play. And then it needed nonstop NYPD protection.
“Amazing that you can’t find a theater willing to put on a show about a massacre against Jews,” playwright Phelim McAleer, 57, said. “October 7 the Play: In Their Own Words” ultimately found a home at the Actors Temple Theatre, a theater and synagogue founded in 1917 as the West Side Hebrew Welfare Union. “A play about the Jewish people needs police protection in New York. In 2024. How did we get here?”
McAleer and his wife Ann McElhinney, 60, were aghast at how quickly the world wanted to forget Oct. 7. “We were in Ireland. On the morning of Oct. 8, the media and people we met were immediately talking about how awful it was that they were turning off the electricity in Gaza. We were quite shocked by how efficiently the media caused people to look at something else so quickly and not talk about this massacre,” McAleer said. “There was a story that wasn’t being told, and that’s what we specialize in: Telling untold stories.”
The couple is known for exploring tough issues through film, plays, books and podcasts through their Unreported Story Society. “This is a play about the truth. It seems there are a lot of people who don’t want the truth on stage in New York,” said McAleer.
McAleer and McElhinney flew to Israel in November, their first visit to the country. “It was truly a unique privilege to speak to the people we met,” said McElhinney. “Remarkable people, each of them very strong … in their own way.”
They spent three weeks in Israel, speaking with the wounded, rescue workers, worried families and a police officer who killed several Hamas terrorists. The play presents 13 detailed accounts drawn verbatim from these interviews. “Stories of tragedy, heroism, fighting back, survival,” McAleer said. “We watched people describe the worst day of their lives, and their resilience, strength, courage, and hope are what you end up walking away with,” McElhinney stated.
In a barbershop in Tel Aviv, McAleer heard people talking about the Irish prime minister’s statement about Emily Hand, the nine-year-old Irish-Israeli girl who had been kidnapped by Hamas. “He presented it as if she went missing,” McAleer said. “I apologized for being Irish for the first time in my life.”
“I told the people around me that I’m Irish and I apologize on his behalf. I said that not everyone in Ireland is like him, and we all got close, hugged each other. It was a very specific experience to be Irish and work on this story at this time,” McAleer said. “Hiding things just isn’t something that suits us. It’s an honor to tell such a story, and we will continue to tell it even in places where people don’t want to hear it.”
Verbatim theater is both a challenge and an opportunity, McAleer said. “You’re limited, but if in a regular play the audience sits back and absorbs what the playwright wrote for them, here they lean forward to listen to every word because they know it was spoken by a real person.”
Amidst a background of explosions and screams, the play is a collage of 13 testimonies—from grandmothers and mothers who hid for hours in safe rooms wondering if their families survived; a policeman with only nine bullets left in his gun who killed several terrorists and saved dozens of his neighbors; an IDF soldier who defended his kibbutz and was shot five times by three different terrorists; a truck driver who saved over 100 people in his truck; and testimonies of those who narrowly escaped the massacre at the Nova Music Festival.
Some clips:
Isaac: “At first when we saw the people on the paragliders, we thought they were Israelis. We waved at them: Shalom!”
Michael: “We got up about 8:30. That’s when I saw a message from Rachel [his daughter]. ‘Bombs. They are bombing us. We are trying to escape.’ And that was it. Nothing else.”
Shani: “It’s like the end of the world, messy, everyone shouting, screaming, running, hiding … just chaos.”
Biliya: “I know he’s dangerous. But I wasn’t scared. How can I explain this? I know he only knows how to kill. I cannot relate to him as a human. It’s a something, it’s not someone … He doesn’t deserve my fear.”
Avishag (8): “Grandma, let’s pretend like we’re dead.”
Orderly: “You can’t believe what’s going on. Like, people are coming with their organs, with their limbs in bags.”
Shani: “I have started to keep Shabbat. I began to believe … I’ve found faith. My faith. I think God was with me that day.”
The couple hopes the play eventually lands on Broadway and then travels throughout the U.S. In the meantime, they’re planning to take the play on a tour of Ivy League colleges in the fall. “They need education they don’t get in their classrooms,” said McAleer.
The couple hopes “October 7 the Play” will also encourage leaders from other areas of the arts to speak out on behalf of Israel. They are disgusted that Hollywood has not taken a bigger stance, but it’s the silence from the music industry that really irks them. “They were hunted down and slaughtered at a music festival. Massacred, because they were Jewish.”
The couple was surprised at the resilience of Israelis. “Even in the darkest days, the Israeli people were able to be humorous,” he said. “Laughter is an act of defiance, too. You’re not going to destroy us. We’re going to rise again. Humor is both a coping mechanism and an act of defiance.”
The staccato intensity of the play leaves you feeling like you lived through a tiny fraction of what Israelis had to endure that day. It’s not a pleasant feeling but for American Jews, who are now enduring a level of antisemitism that none of us were prepared for, it can strengthen our own resilience.
And while it’s beyond sad that an Irish Catholic couple is braver than NYC’s entire theater district—heavily populated with Jewish playwrights and producers—one is ultimately left with a small amount of faith in humanity. The same kind of faith that Christian resistance to Hitler gave European Jews.
Originally published by Jewish Journal.