Rebecca Caspi is the Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Director-General of the Israel Office for The Jewish Federations of North America. In a conversation recorded Jan. 23, she and Jewish Review editor Rockne Roll discussed the details of the recent ceasefire arrangements with Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the reaction of the Israeli public and the next steps for the Jewish State as it moves forward from Oct. 7. A portion of their conversation is transcribed below. For the full conversation, check out “Ceasefire Conditions with Rebecca Caspi” on The Jewish Review Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms. This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity. 
The Jewish Review: Let’s talk about the ceasefire with Hamas. 
Rebecca Caspi: The ceasefire in Gaza was reached after many long and painful months of negotiations, false hopes, and expectations, but the agreement was finally approved, and it came into force on Sunday morning, Jan. 19. Of the key aspects of the ceasefire, the one I think that most people have focused on from the Israeli side of the border is it dictates, over the course of 42 to 50 days, the release of 33 hostages of a total of 98 when the ceasefire was signed. 
The first three young women have come home, and that was a day of tremendous euphoria. I have to say anecdotally, and maybe some of our listeners will enjoy knowing this, that a number of people reported to me they couldn’t believe how light the traffic was from all different parts of the country, because everybody was glued to the television screens, waiting to see was it going to become real. There were some stops and starts even that very day. The ceasefire did not come into force at the time it was anticipated because the names of the people to be released were not provided to Israel on time. [Editor’s Note: Additional hostages have been released since this conversation was recorded.]
I guess what I want to share first and foremost with our listeners, is that it is in force, but it is tenuous. I don’t think that Israelis will fully breathe out until we see our 33 hostages returned home, as I said, over 42 to 50 days. In this part of the world, an awful lot can happen in that period of time. I’ll share, too, that as hostages start to be released, Israel, in return, is beginning to release Palestinian security prisoners. So, when you think about the mood of the country at this moment, is everybody out dancing in the streets? Many people wept for joy and felt a great lightening and a lift of spirits as we saw the first images of our hostages being freed, but there are many families who may be very far on the other side of that equation. They know that the people that injured or killed their precious family members are now being released, and that is causing for many of them, great pain and sadness and confusion and concern. We know from prior prisoner release agreements that a very high percentage of security prisoners who’ve been released in the past have returned to terrorist activities after they were freed, and so releasing a very large number of people, including murderers and even mass murderers, is something we’re a little bit nervous about.
JR: So, with the with the positively evolving situation on both the northern border and around the Gaza Envelope, is there any thought of Oct. 9, so to speak? Because what we’ve been hearing for more than a year now is that it’s still Oct. 8; it’s still the day after the attacks. Has there been any sort of psychological shift towards the day after the day after?
RC: It’s a pretty volatile neighborhood, so it often depends on what day, after which news story, or at what hour you might catch up with any one of your Israeli friends or family. I’ll zoom back and try and answer that more broadly. 
There are many lingering issues. The biggest gaping open wound, of course, is the fate of our hostages. I don’t think that Israel will be able to fully pivot towards recovery until every single Israeli is home. It’s really almost indescribable, the pain on the one hand and the commitment of so many on the other to bring every last person home.
It’s important to understand that the situation in the communities in the Western Negev, around the Gaza Strip, that were so horrifically impacted on Oct. 7 are in some ways farther along down their path to recovery, farther along than Israelis who are in the north. While the whole region was evacuated after the Hamas attack, most of the residents of southern Israel and the Western Negev have returned home. 
For most of the kids of the Western Negev, they started this school year back in their communities. They spent much of the summer being prepared for that through programs that Jewish Federations, which I represent, and others, were helpful in providing to them to stabilize them. It’s no simple thing to be living with your parents in a very small hotel room for months, separated from friends and have all of the different challenges; perhaps wounded family members or an older brother or older sister who’s in combat, from whom you don’t hear that often and has been away for hundreds of days. Maybe that’s your dad, or maybe that’s your mom. The impact of this war is so deep and touches every member of Israeli society. 
For people in the far north along the Lebanese border, it’s too early to return home. The government is speaking about reopening the schools in that area on Mar. 1. Many of the schools have been significantly damaged, so there are challenges with that. Then, just south of the places from which people were evacuated, you actually have hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have been living literally through war and under fire for many months; even if they weren’t displaced, their lives were completely disrupted. The basis of the Northern economy draws primarily from agriculture and tourism, two things which were severely impacted by this war. 
The question of whether or not the Lebanese army will have the ability to keep Hezbollah out and, frankly, the degree to which the United States and others may require that of them is, I think, going to be the determining factor. What you hear from absolutely everyone is that, until security is restored, and until people feel secure, which is perhaps two separate things, perhaps the same, it will take time before many Israelis return to the far north of the country.