Eight months after October 7th, four of the hostages are home. Thank you to the members of the IDF who put their lives on the line to bring Noa, Shlomi, Andrey, and Almog safely. If only the other 120 captives were also free.
It is a glimmer in the darkness that I will never take for granted.
Not all bargains come with consequences. But some do. What matters is the terms of that bargain and who it may affect.
After 50-odd days of fighting, a 4-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced. 50 hostages will be released over the period of the agreement. So far, two groups of Israeli women and children have been able to return home. 10 Thai citizens are also among those who have been freed.
In return, additional will be trucked into Gaza. Palestinian prisoners who were held in Israeli jails for murder or attempted murder will be released.
While I am thrilled some of those who were held captive are home or on the way home, I have a sinking feeling that the other side will continue on as if the ceasefire never existed.
The question now is how many more (on both sides) will be killed? What deals with Israel have to make in order for the rest of those still held in captivity to be released?
P.S. The Muslim vendor who was verbally attacked on the Upper West Side by a Jewish man last week was just trying to earn a living. I understand the reason for the anger, I feel the same way. But to act in this manner only exaggerates the problem, giving the other side the ammunition they need to make their claim.
In the world of movie sequels, there are many that are released to the movie going public. But there are few movie sequels that not only stand on their own, but also advance the story forward.
One of these movies is X-Men 2, released in 2003.
Taking off from where X-Men ended, X-Men 2 begins several months later. A previously unknown mutant, Nightcrawler, (Alan Cumming) has attempted to assassinate the President. In retaliation, the governments puts into a place a series of anti-mutant measures. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is trying to find out where he came from while Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) is trying to break her boss, Magneto (Ian McKellen) from prison.
Complicating things is William Stryker (Brian Cox), a scientist who breaks into Professor X’s school and take hostages, Professor Xavier included. Now both teams of mutants must come together to rescue the hostages.
Up until earlier this year when I saw X-Men: Days Of Future Past, I would have said that X-Men 2 is the best comic book movie ever made. But second place is still not bad.
What I liked about this movie is the mixture of the action and the drama. While this movie has the requisite heroes vs. villain scenes, it is much more complicated. This movie blurs the lines (especially within the mutant characters) of who is a hero and and who is a villain. The scene in the movie when Bobby comes out to his family (spoiler alert), who then rejects him, breaks my heart. The final scene of the movie (which I will not spoil for those who have not seen this movie) was on the greatest movie cliffhangers I had seen up to that point.
I recommend this movie.
Writergurlny 
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