On July 2, 2026, Israel paused at 6:29 in the morning — the exact minute, three years earlier, that the world changed — for a national moment of silence.

One thousand days. The longest war in the country's history, by the IDF's own accounting. More than 20,000 projectiles launched from Lebanon. More than 10,000 from Gaza. Over 1,000 from Iran. The war touched Yemen, Syria, Iraq. It killed 964 soldiers in a single morning. It took 251 hostages, and the full account of how many came home alive, and how many didn't, is something many Israelis are still not ready to total up cleanly.

Across the country on July 2, families gathered. Bereaved parents marched. Released hostages spoke. "For you, it has been 1,000 days," said Rom Braslavski, who spent 728 of those days in a Gaza tunnel. "For me, it has been an eternity."

In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked the Ayalon Highway. "1,000 days of shiva," read one banner. "1,000 days of burying the truth," read another, held by two people standing at a junction in the Galilee. Outside the Knesset: "We won't forget, and we won't forgive."

We are ending this newsletter on these days. And before we do, we owe you the full honest account of why we started it — because we've never stated all of it in one place.

With the return of the final hostage, the clock marking the days since the start of the October 7 war and captivity of 250 hostages was finally stilled and then darkened, symbolizing the end of one of the darkest periods in the history of Israel.

This week’s Profile in Power is Prof. Hagai Levine, who is an Israeli physician, epidemiologist, and public-health expert who emerged as a central civic voice in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. As Head of the Health Team within the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Levine reframed the hostage crisis not as a political dilemma, but as an urgent humanitarian and medical emergency. Drawing on decades of professional expertise, he brought clarity, data, and ethical grounding to public discourse, insisting that time, health deterioration, and preventable loss of life must be treated as decisive factors rather than abstract considerations. His interventions helped shift both public and international attention toward the human cost of inaction.

This is the last weekly issue as we move to a monthly schedule (1st Monday of the month).

In this issue we focus on Qatar, one of President Trump’s favorite countries, and how it has funded the anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian movement. We also discuss the recent events in Iran and an attack on the mother of the remaining Israeli hostage. Our Portrait of Power this week is Col. (res.) Miri Eisen who is an Israeli reserve officer and civic leader who emerged as a prominent voice following the events of October 7, 2023.