How am I supposed to understand the difference between their Zionism and mine?"

Thank you, Ben, for the question from my hometown.

Ben, let me start by saying your instinct is spot on to feel a sense of embarrassment and shame.

I don't think there's any way to sugarcoat this.

We could talk about, and people try to do this, how many are they and who are they that are perpetrating this violence in the last few weeks? Those are details that I think don't matter.

What matters is criminals are criminals.

And I said this on social media earlier in the week 'cause I was so bothered by it.

I just think older generations need to understand this reality." So Jon, what is your reaction to this reality?

Um, could you tell us a bit about your meeting with him and what it meant to you? Um, it was very important for him, as Rachel writes in, in the book, to meet both of you immediately after he was released when he was still very weak.

Yeah.

So the story is on day 491, Or is released from captivity along with Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami.

That night was a Shabbat morning, and that night, the moment Shabbat went out, my phone rings, and it's Michael Levy, Or's brother, and he says, and we'd gotten to know Michael over the struggle to save the hostages, he says, "One of the first questions that Or asked when he got out..." Now, I want to remind your listeners that Or was released on day 491.

He was notified that his wife, Einav, had actually been killed in the bomb shelter on October 7th.

He didn't know that, and he had just been reunited with his son, who's three and had been living with no parents for 491 days.

And one of the first questions that Or asked his family is, "How is Hersh?" And Michael thought, "Hersh? How do you even really know Hersh? And unfortunately, I need to tell you that this Hersh who you're asking about was killed 160 days ago." And Michael says, "Or would really like to meet you." And we went to this hospital where Or had just been released.

Is, is that a thing that, that you think about?

We spoke on October 16th on CNN, you and Jon.

Our son, by all accounts of the sur- of the witnesses, had his left arm blown off.

That's Hirsch with the bone sticking out of his left forearm being forced into a pickup truck.

As soon as we got off, I said, "I, I need to call you." Um, but I still couldn't.

To this day, I'm, I, I am sorry that that is how you found out, that I was the one to tell you that, that there's this video.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so we have not talked today to hostages who have been released and their families.

We want to give them their space.

We think they (laughs) deserve their space.

But we've certainly talked a lot to families, first of all, of hostages who have been released in the past and met many of the hostages who were released in the past.

Our story did not end personally the way we all prayed and hoped it would, but we did live for 330 days deep in this struggle and we've stayed in it since then, so we know what the families are going through.

It's a feeling and an experience that, fortunately, few people in the world really understand.

(laughs)

Do you hope now that there, that there may be a chance here with Hamas so weakened, with Iran, uh, agreeing s- so far to- to the ceasefire, that there may be a chance to actually come up with a comprehensive solution here?

I think that there is such a chance.

Every excuse that we've heard for 627 days of why a deal could not be done, additional threats on other borders, and there was always something, Israel has systematically removed every one of those obstacles.

So, I would go so far as to say that if we don't have a deal in the coming day or two that includes bringing back home all 50 hostages, this will be a wasted opportunity.

They really represent the world.

And- and I want to add a message, not necessarily to the Trump administration, but to the American people, which is a reminder.

On October 7th, 2023, in the horrific Hamas attack, 48 American citizens were killed that day.

And since then, another almost 40 have been killed during the ongoing hostilities.