In Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, the clock never stops. Its glowing red numbers measure not just time but torment, the relentless march since October 7. For over two years it has marked the captivity of Israel’s sons and daughters in Gaza, the moral heartbeat of a wounded nation. But with the living hostages now home, the clock’s meaning must change. It should not be turned off, but turned back—to August 1, 2014, the day Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was taken. To truly understand October 7, one must first confront what Israel chose to forget.
Hadar Goldin fell during a humanitarian ceasefire, “captured in a Hamas ambush,” as his father, Professor Simha Goldin, has written. “Those who abandon the dead will abandon the wounded and the living. By bolstering Hamas, we invited their aggression.” That line, prophetic and devastating, captures the moral chain linking one war to the next. The abandonment of Hadar’s body was not an isolated failure; it was one of the seeds of October 7. It was the moment when “quiet” became a national policy, when deterrence was replaced by denial, and when a billion-dollar fence was mistaken for courage.
Professor Goldin warned what would follow. “It’s our faith in the security doctrine of ‘quiet’ that has led us astray,” he wrote, describing how Israel’s leaders ranked “food, water, medicines, electricity, sewage, salaries” above the return of its soldiers. “These two outstanding soldiers, Oron from Golani and Hadar from Givati, were less important than the sewers of Gaza.” The consequence of that hierarchy is written in the ashes of October 7. When a nation abandons its dead, it prepares the ground for the abandonment of its living.
Resetting the clock is not about nostalgia or symbolism. It is an act of moral correction. It declares that the true measure of captivity began long before Hamas breached the border on 10/7; it began when Israel lost its moral compass and accepted “quiet” as victory. Goldin himself put it simply: “When they abandoned Hadar, they destroyed those values… and when they did not bring him home, they abandoned the promise of ‘never leaving a soldier behind.’”
The clock in Hostage Square should reflect that truth. Its first second should not be 10/7 but 8/1/2014, the day fear triumphed over duty. Only when that time is counted will Israel confront the full story of its own captivity. And only when Hadar Goldin returns home, alive in memory and honored in justice, can the clock finally be dismantled entirely.
Very moving and true. I began lighting candles after October 7. At first, I lit 24 hour candles, hopefully, but naïvely, believing that the return of our people would be imminent. After several weeks, I lit seven day candles. Then I added specific candles for the survivors who committed suicide, for retrieved remains. Too many candles. Notwithstanding the return of all the living hostages, I continue to light candles for those dead hostages who remain in Gaza. Thank you for reminding me about our forgotten soldiers. I am ashamed that I failed to honour Goldin by never lighting a candle for him and more important, for too long not pushing back against policies that trumped Gazans over Israelis.