So, here we are again. Another day, another grim headline, and another politician in a suit telling us that a tragedy is actually a win. Breaking news confirms that **Israel has found the remains of Ran Gvili**, a hostage taken during the ongoing conflict. He is finally coming home, but not to hug his family or sleep in his own bed. He is coming home in a box. We do not need the graphic details to understand the heavy, dark truth of this **hostage crisis**.

But if you listen to the people in charge, you might think something great just happened. **Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu** stood up and characterized this recovery operation as an “extraordinary achievement.” Think about those two words for a second regarding the **Ran Gvili update**. An achievement is when you build something. An achievement is when you save a life. An achievement is when you stop a bad thing from happening. Finding the bones of a man who should have been safe at home is not an achievement. It is the final receipt of a transaction that went horribly wrong a long time ago.

I am not saying the soldiers didn’t do their job. I am sure they worked hard. I am sure they risked their necks to go into a dangerous place and bring him back. They did what they were told. But the people at the top? The ones giving the speeches? They have lost the plot. They are so desperate for a win—any kind of win—that they will point to a hearse and tell you it is a parade.

This is the state of the world right now. The bar for success is so low it is buried underground. We have politicians on one side who cannot keep their people safe, and enemies on the other side who treat human beings like trading cards. The people holding hostages are monsters. Let’s be clear about that. Keeping a person, or even the remains of a person, as leverage is the behavior of ghouls. It is sick. It is evil. There is no defense for it.

But let’s look at the other side of the coin, too. The side that is supposed to be the "good guys." The side with the flags and the anthems and the press conferences. They have spent months and months fighting, talking, and making promises regarding the **Gaza war**. And what is the result? A press release about remains. And then they expect us to clap. They expect us to nod our heads and say, "Good job, boss. You did it."

It makes you wonder what they think “failure” looks like if this is what they call success. If bringing home a dead body is an “extraordinary achievement,” then words don't mean anything anymore. They are just noises that people in power make to fill the silence. They are trying to sell us a story where they are the heroes. But in this story, there are no heroes. There are just victims and the people who failed them.

This is why I don't trust any of them. Not the ones hiding in tunnels, and not the ones sitting in air-conditioned offices. They are all playing a game. The pieces on the board are real people with real families. And when those pieces get broken, the players just shrug and spin the narrative. They tell the family, "At least you have closure." Closure? That is a word invented by people who don't have to live with the pain. Closure doesn't bring anyone back. It just means the waiting is over and the crying begins.

We need to stop letting them get away with this. We need to stop letting them frame funerals as victories. When a leader tells you that finding a casualty is a triumph, they are treating you like an idiot. They think you are too stupid to know the difference between saving a life and cleaning up a crime scene. Don't be the idiot they think you are.

The return of **Ran Gvili** is sad. It is a relief for his family, I am sure, to finally know the truth. But let’s not pretend it is a win. It is just the period at the end of a very sad sentence. The politicians will pat themselves on the back, take a few photos, and move on to the next disaster. And they will probably call that one a victory, too. It is all a show, and it is a bad one. Turn it off.

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### References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source**: [Israel says it has retrieved remains of final Gaza hostage](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ydvz7nz4mo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss) (BBC News) * **Fact Check**: The IDF confirmed the recovery of the body of Ran Gvili, a member of the Yasam civic police unit, from the Gaza Strip. The comments regarding the "extraordinary achievement" are attributed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the operation.