Dani Miran stopped shaving when his son Omri was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. As far as I know, he hasn’t shaved it off yet, but he could.

That’s because his son was finally freed over the weekend. Freed, after 737 days living in 23 different places, above ground and in dirty, dark tunnels.

His father, Dani, was 80 years old when I interviewed him at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Dani’s hair was gone on top, but the beard was impressively white and full, like Santa. Unlike Santa, Dani didn’t smile much. Understandably.

The sun was blazing, so we sat in a tent at Hostages Square, which is across the street from the IDF headquarters. Other hostage family and friends were with us, listening to Dani speak about his son, the hostages and Israel. They would nod as he spoke.

“I’m not here about anyone or anything else,” Dani says. “I’m here for my son.”

He looked around. “I want the whole world to know my son, to remember my son. And I want my son back.”

On October 7, Omri Miran and his family – wife Lishay and two very young daughters – lived at kibbutz Nahal Oz in Israel’s South, near the border with Gaza. On that fateful morning, Hamas terrorists forced the family to open a locked door by threatening to shoot a 16-year-old neighbour in the head. As Omri was taken away, his wife Lishay told him: “Don’t be a hero. I love you, and I’ll take care of the girls. I’ll wait for you.”

She, and Dani, did. For two years, they tirelessly advocated for Omri and the other hostages, imploring Israelis and the world to remember them. At one press conference outside the home where Omri was taken, they spoke directly to him, telling him his daughters loved him, they all loved him, and to “just come back.”

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In politics, as in hockey, “elbows down” can have unhelpful consequences.

You can get hit more, for example. Lots more bruises and missing teeth, too.

A quick 2025 refresher, for those who don’t remember: Justin Trudeau leaves, Donald Trump arrives, 51st state, Pierre Poilievre collapses, Mark Carney appears.

And Carney – who had never run for high public office before, had never chaired a cabinet meeting, had never participated in televised leaders’ debate – did better than anyone (especially Poilievre) expected. But he had a secret weapon, didn’t he? Carney had two words that made him Prime Minister, and saved the Liberal Party of Canada from a fourth-place finish in the election.

“Elbows up.”

The Liberals bet the house on those two words, and it paid off, big time. They put them in online ads. They put them in speeches. They put them in ads, and ran them over and over and over, featuring Carney and beloved Canadian ex-pat Mike Myers at a hockey rink, somewhere in Anytown, Canada.

The scene: Myers looks surprised to run into a Prime Minister at a hockey rink. Carney asks if Myers lives in the States. Myers says yes, but adds that “I’ll always be Canadian.” Skeptical, Carney then quizzes him on Mr. Dressup, Howie Meeker, Saskatchewan’s capital, Toronto’s seasons and the Tragically Hip. Myers gets them all.

“Wow,” says Carney, smiling the smile he reserves for those love-sick moments when he actually calls Trump a “transformative” president. “You really are Canadian.”

Myers: “But let me ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, will there always be a Canada?”

Carney: “There will always be a Canada!”

Myers: “All right! Elbows up!” Carney says it, too, and then they (weirdly, this isn’t the pandemic anymore, fellas) touch elbows.

Thusly, “elbows up” elected Mark Carney Prime Minister, kept the Grits in power, and defeated Pierre Poilievre in the election and his own seat. Two words did all that. Impressive.

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First things first: Donald Trump deserves lots of credit. Even Trump critics like this writer agree.

On the second anniversary of October 7, I spoke at a vigil for the hostages still held by Hamas. Unsurprisingly, some of the Jews present kibbutzed with me about the rumoured coming peace deal. I asked them whether Trump could pull it off.

One woman summed it up perfectly. “I’m no fan of Donald Trump, like you,” she said. “He’s a bit crazy. But this is a situation where his craziness helps – Hamas obviously feels he’s crazy enough to wipe them out!”

We laughed, but that was – and remains – the key question: will Donald Trump’s peace deal result in the eradication of Hamas? Because make no mistake: Hamas is the biggest impediment to lasting peace in the Middle East. Israel, and every surrounding Arab nation agree on that.

Given that, what does the future hold? What challenges lie ahead, for Trump and the rest of the world? There are five main ones.

The Propaganda War. I’ve written a book about this subject, titled The Hidden Hand, and it’s out in February. One thing that is indisputable: the anti-Israel, anti-West propaganda campaign – overseen by Iran, funded by Qatar and assorted anti-Israel charities and NGOs, and staffed by Hamas and its axis – is not going away, peace or no peace.

The antisemitic, anti-Israel information war has been wildly successful for Hamas and its cabal – far beyond their own expectations, in fact. Just this week, Harvard-Harris released a poll showing nearly half of young Americans fully support Hamas over Israel. And, online and in the streets – and in academia, government and public sector unions – Israel is losing, or has lost, the information battle. The antisemitism we see everywhere is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

The Governance of Gaza. There is a reason why no surrounding Arab nations ever took on Palestinian refugees – and why Egypt even built a wall bordering Southern Gaza that was impenetrable: stable Arab states regard Gaza, and Palestinians, as completely ungovernable. So who is going to run the Gaza Strip, if the Palestinian Authority can’t, and Hamas shouldn’t?

For the likes of Canada’s Mark Carney, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer, answering that question is very politically perilous. Those three, and others, recently recognized the state of Palestine and made grandiose pledges to pay for its reconstruction and rehabilitation. There will be a steep dollar cost for that, which Canadian taxpayers are unlikely to appreciate. And, if Carney makes good on speculation that Canadian troops could be sent to Gaza to keep the “peace,” what happens when some of them inevitably become casualties?

Words are cheap. Messrs. Carney, Macron and Starmer may soon regret theirs.

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“Truth is the first casualty of war.”

Of course.

Everyone knows that one. You hear it all the time. But – good God Almighty – that latest Harvard-Harris poll: there perhaps has never been better evidence of the war-murders-truth proposition, perhaps ever. Not even since the Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote those words, some 3,000 years ago.

The Harvard-Harris survey landed on our computer screens on October 7, and was issued by the university’s respected Center for American Political Studies. Nearly 2,500 registered voters were contacted at the start of the month, and the results are considered to be accurate 95 per cent of the time. The poll covered the mood of the country, Trump, economy, jobs, and so on.

It was the answers to the “Israel and Gaza” questions, however, that were – and this word is used too much by those of us in the media, but it applies in this case – shocking. Really, truly shocking.

The Harvard-Harris numbers can’t be easily dismissed, either, international law expert Elliot Malin noted, because Harvard-Harris is “consistently been the only pollster asking questions on Israel-Hamas over the last two years.” So they have what pollsters like to call a “baseline” or “benchmark,” and are therefore much more accurate.

Here is a sampling of what Harvard-Harris found:

• Nearly half of Gen Z – those from ages 18 to 24 – support Hamas over Israel. Almost 40 per cent of Millennials – ages 25 to 34 – support the terror group over Israel.
• Over 40 per cent of Gen Z oppose Hamas releasing the hostages they took on October 7, 2023. A third of Millennials feel the same way.
• Over 60 per cent of Gen Z oppose Trump’s peace plan, which is supported by every Arab nation in the region, and just about every country on Earth. Nearly 50 per cent of Millennials oppose the peace plan.
• Sixty per cent of Gen Z falsely believe Israel has actually rejected Trump’s peace plan. And 45 per cent of Millennials have somehow concluded the same thing.
• Forty per cent of Gen Z think Hamas should reject the peace plan. And almost 30 per cent want Israel “ended,” and power simply handed over to Hamas/Palestinians.

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