The post-October 7th road on which Israel embarked was long, and it was winding, and it brought us to where we are today.
It was plowed by the bravery and far-reaching achievements of our heroic soldiers.
It is a road that is stained with their blood and is paved by the heartbreak of those by whom they are mourned and survived.
I have personally walked a similar road. I did so in 2006 during my service in the Second Lebanon War and thus recognize its contours.
It is a road that is signposted and landmarked by the abandoned homes, deserted towns and displaced lives of Israel's northern residents.
But the road back from our current position, charted by this ceasefire deal, signed by Israel's leadership, is ill-plotted, rushed and threatens to abruptly return us to one destination; a pre-October 7th reality.
Common to both roads are the blood stains and the sacrifices of our defenders. A significant distinguishing factor may prove to be whether or not Israel's citizens are prepared, and feel safe enough, to return to their homes in the north of the country.
Based on the public parameters of the deal and its woeful inadequacies, that return remains an open question.
By withdrawing its insistence on a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon, by allowing the return of Lebanese civilians - and therefore Hezbollah - to the border with Israel, by absurdly suggesting that the Lebanese military is somehow equipped to prevent the rearming and re-entrenchment of Hezbollah along our border fence, and by suggesting that anyone should be comforted by the mooted return of UNIFIL forces to the area, Israel is effectively throwing up its hands. It is doing so inexplicably; at precisely the point that the IDF has battered Hezbollah with such intensity that the terror army is now reeling and flailing against the ropes, its buckling knees struggling to keep it upright.
Israel and the IDF should instead finish the task in which they are so valiantly and rightfully engaged.
Any conclusive outcome must include the separation of Hezbollah's patron, Iran, from its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the permanent uprooting of its proxies from our borders; lest the next generation of Israel's defenders be sent forward in short order, to complete the work that Hezbollah so murderously and mercilessly thrust upon the shoulders of our current and valiant warriors.
History does not repeat itself; but it certainly seems to rhyme!