Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, wasn’t sure that any of the 251 hostages—men, women and children of all ages, even a nine-month-old baby—taken by Hamas would ever return as the events of the Oct. 7 attacks unfolded in 2023.
On Monday, he told JNS what it was like to be in the Knesset in Jerusalem when the final 20 living hostages returned to Israel ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to Israeli lawmakers.
“To be sitting in the Knesset awaiting the president’s arrival with a group of people who care so deeply about bringing the hostages home, care so deeply about Israel, want peace so desperately, and then we got word that the 20 living hostages were all out—it just was a very special moment,” Deutch said. “While we were in the Knesset, they had TVs on where we could watch reunions of families and hostages being released, and it was as if you could feel all of Israel exhale for the first time.”
He added that “I’ve been coming regularly since Oct. 7, and this was the first time where it felt like the tension finally eased up a bit, and it was just really gratifying to see.”
Before heading to the Knesset, Deutch joined thousands of Israelis gathered in Hostages Square, outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, to watch and celebrate the handover from Hamas. Deutch told JNS that the mood was “electric.”
“Across Hostages Square, with all of the energy coming from people sitting around the piano and singing, to other people spontaneously chanting ‘Am Yisrael Chai,’ to the people walking through the tunnel that had been constructed there to help people understand what the hostages have been experiencing—all of that energy really just reflected the resilience of the Israeli people,” the former Florida Democratic congressman said. “More than anything else, through all of my trips to Israel since Oct. 7, there was this sense that we don’t know how long this is going to take, but we’re going to win this war, we’re going to do everything we can to get our hostages back and we’re going to continue to thrive as a nation and I kept thinking about that last night as as people were able to finally celebrate.”
After arriving in Israel on Sunday night, Deutch said that on his drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he passed billboards welcoming Trump to the country, and Israeli and American flags on every lamp post.
Trump’s address declaring that Israel had won the war was greeted with cheers and sustained applause throughout the Knesset from both the government and opposition, and was only briefly interrupted when two far-left members were removed from the chamber for holding up signs that said “recognize Palestine.”
Deutch said that Americans should take note of the widespread support Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza enjoys from both the Israeli government and opposition, and said the president had made clear that he was doubling down on America’s commitment to Israel, the Israeli people and Israel’s role in the Middle East.
“It’s such a dramatic moment for the history of Israel,” Deutch said. “There’s nothing political about the president’s remarkable success here. It’s endorsed and supported and welcomed and praised across the political spectrum here in Israel. I hope that elected officials in the United States—some of whom, over the past couple of years, have unfortunately bought into some of the false narratives and the lies hurled at Israel—will listen to the speech of the person whose job is to oppose the Prime Minister of Israel, because he’s very much on the same page.”
‘A lot of chatter in the hall’
One of the biggest question marks of the day was whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would join Trump at the regional peace ceremony in Egypt, given the sundown timing of the start of the high holiday of Simchat Torah. The Israeli leader ultimately declined his last-minute invitation.
“There was a lot of chatter in the hall when people learned that the prime minister was invited and was going to be attending,” Deutch said of the mood in the Knesset. “I’m certainly disappointed that he’s not going.”
He told JNS that the United States, Israel and regional partners can enact subsequent elements of Trump’s plan, including removing Hamas from governance and disarming the terror group by extracting further commitments from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey other countries to stabilize Gaza.
“The president has accomplished this enormous feat; President Trump deserves so much credit for getting us to this point,” Deutch said. “The big question was: Can the intense focus that he’s given to date continue? And from everything that we heard today in the Knesset, the answer to that seems to be a resounding ‘Yes.’”
He rounded off his thoughts by saying, “If you’re not hopeful, on a magnificent day in Jerusalem where the President of the United States came to deliver this impassioned speech on behalf of Israel at the same time the hostages were being reunited with their families, there will never be a day that you’re hopeful.”
