743 days of silence: In Memoriam of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser
by Nili Schneidman
As I woke up July 16th 2008, the day had initially seemed to be like any other. I got dressed, ate my breakfast and left for the bus at 7 A.M. as I had done every day before. But as soon as I stepped on the bus, I felt an electric current of emotions and excitement stirring up from my friends whose energies were alive within heated discussion; Eldad and Udi are coming home.
And so there it was, after 734 days of silence, 734 days of anger, grief and helplessness, 734 days of pure purgatory, there had been a breakthrough. IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, whose abduction on July 12th 2006 by the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization sparked the Israeli-Lebanon war, would be returned to Israel. This soldier exchange was part of an obviously very disproportionate prisoner swap which was carried out in accordance with the Red Cross and UN observers.
To the eyes of much of the Western observer, it looked as though we had made a deal with the devil. For the return of Eldad and Ehud, two soldiers from which we had received no communication or even verification if alive, we had returned to the Hezbollah about 200 bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian militants, four Hezbollah militants, as well as the Palestine Liberation Front militant and convicted murderer Samir Kuntar. Samir Kuntar was among the worst of the enemy militants. Kuntar was sentenced to a prison for 542 years for the murder of four people during a raid in 1979, including a father, Danny Haran, in front of his four year old daughter, who he then also killed by smashing her skull against a rock with a rifle butt.
The return of so many bodies in exchange for Eldad and Ehud seems too high a price for some. The problem was that until now, Israel never constructed an official hostage exchange policy. After the return of Eldad and Udi, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barack delivered a message to the entire army saying “If any of you fall captive, the State of Israel, the Government, the Defense minister and the Chief of Staff will do EVERYTHING possible to bring you back.”
Over the two year period, from the moment 26 year old Eldad and 31 year old Ehud, affectionately nicknamed Udi by his loved ones and even by the Israeli press, were abducted, they were not just soldiers that were missing in action; they grew to become our family. Eldad and Udi came to represent the brothers, sons and husbands of every Israeli citizen, and we all desperately wanted them to come home safe and sound as soon as possible no matter what the cost. Although we heard no news, received no tapes or letters pronouncing their survival, we supported, prayed and fought hard for their homecoming, along with all of Eldad’s and Udi’s close relatives and friends.
We were especially inspired by Karnit Goldwasser, Udi’s wife, who since the abduction has served as a courageous symbol and leader of the international campaign to return the soldiers, traveling all over the world for this cause. At one point, she even posed as a reporter at UN press conference and addressed President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who supports Hezbollah both in arms and training, and asked what information he has on the soldier’s conditions and why he was denying the Red Cross to visit the captured soldiers. Through the media, her voice and spirit motivated millions of people around the world to join in rallies, protests, petitions, and marches, for we believed that each step we marched, would somehow how bring Udi and Eldad a step closer to us too.
The only thing me and my fellow bus passengers knew at seven in the morning was that soon we would have two of our three soldiers back. However, their condition still remained unknown. I rushed into my office at 8:30 A.M., and scrambled to find the right TV and radio stations, but of course it made no difference since all the stations were covering this single chilling event. And as people poured into the office we huddled around the television fervently anticipating the final stages of the trade. As each minute ticked by, we grew more hopeful, thought of more prayers and although we realized that the chances that our beloved Udi and Eldad were extremely low, we could not give up. And then finally at 9:40 A.M., one of the most disturbing acts of human cruelty was recorded live on television.
The Hezbollah organization of course took this golden opportunity to torture Israel one last time, by having the Hezbollah official, Wafik Safa, behave like a twisted magician or reality television host at the height of anticipation. As the world waited with a heavy heart for Hezbollah to bring the van with Eldad and Ehud over to the Red Cross, Safa smiled wickedly to the news reporters and said “Now we shall deliver the Israeli soldiers we captured on July 12th 2006, whose fate until this very moment remained a mystery.” When a reporter asked whether the soldiers were still alive or dead Safa grinned and replied “In just a moment you shall see their outcome”, at which point Hezbollah militants opened the doors of their black van tossing two black coffins onto the ground. At this sight the revolting Safa began to chuckle and said “Now you see? The mystery has been solved!” There was truly no end to the evil they would make us endure, so it was not surprising the next day that while we mourned and wept the loss of our soldiers, in Lebanon they danced and celebrated their victory and the return of child murderer Samir Kuntar, naming him a national hero.
When I and the rest of the office saw those two coffins thud on the floor, it was like we were struck by lightning and our hearts just skipped a beat, along with the rest of the Israeli nation. It was heartbreaking in ways that just can’t be described in words, because even two months later, as I remember that day and the following day during which the funerals of Udi and Eldad were televised, I cannot help but cry and ask “how did things turn out so wrong”?
“Toosh, (her nickname for Ehud) my love. They say time helps, heals and covers wounds. Does it? Two years have passed since that paralyzing and freezing moment when with the wave of a knife our life together was sliced. For two years I spoke in the name of two; Eldad and Udi, Regev and Goldwasser. The struggle, waiting to bring you home, was a mutual one from the outset. But today, for the first time, I allow myself to turn just to you Toosh. And the heart, the heart my beacon, that heart is weeping and hurting.”
“We dreamt all of us, the families and the State of Israel, to hang onto the necks of Udi and Eldad, embrace them with warmth, to raise a smile on their lips and ours, after two sad years. We wanted to see the Goldwasser and Regev families and the people of Israel happy, after hundreds of days of darkness. But that did not happen. Tears of pain accompany their return home, and the heart is indeed heavy. The heart is heavy but we stand straight and undaunted before the coffins that encase our two soldiers.”
These two men, Udi and Eldad, who never had the pleasure of meeting or knowing each other in their lives, grew intertwined through their tragedy, and ended up becoming brothers. Their families, the Goldwasser’s and the Regev’s supported each other throughout this mutual ordeal, and merged into one family, just as we saw them as part of our own families, too.
But our last lost son, Eldad and Ehud’s other brother, 22 year old Staff Sergeant Gilad Shalit is still missing. Unlike Eldad and Ehud, we have received proof in the form of letters and tapes that he is still alive, or at the very least was at the time of his abduction by Hamas. Gilaad has already spent over 817 days in captivity, and spent his last two birthdays in hell. Now more than ever, we must fight to bring home Gilad—to bring him home fast and safe to his family in good health, as quickly as possible. As it is written in the Torah: "Ve'shavu banim le'gvulam" – "And thy sons shall return to their borders” and such tragedies will never occur once more.
* If you would like more information on this topic or sign a petition for Gilad Shalit’s release please go to the website http://www.habanim.org/en/index_en.html
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