Israeli Eyal Avitan came to Milwaukee last week bearing not only the memory of his late brother, Adi, but also the weight of Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
As Eyal shared his family’s struggle to free Adi, who had been kidnapped in northern Israel by Hezbollah, it was easy to see the parallel between Adi and Israel’s most recent kidnapped soldiers.
On Oct. 7, 2000, the day before Yom Kippur, Adi Avitan was patrolling Israel’s northern border with Lebanon when he and fellow soldiers Benyamin Avraham and Omar Sawaid were kidnapped by Hezbollah.
The families then spent three years and three months feeling uncertain and helpless. They traveled the world, organized rallies, met with presidents, prime ministers and lawmakers.
As Eyal explained during the community’s Yom HaZikaron (Israel Remembrance Day) event, held at Congregation Sinai on Sunday, April 22, “My family was hoping not to be a part of the many families who suffered a loss. But we are, and our hearts still refuse to believe.”
He described the moment that he heard that representatives of the military were looking for his parents. “I felt like I was falling from a skyscraper. I rushed home — praying to God — please let him just be wounded and not dead.”
In November 2001, after the Israel Defense Forces recognized the soldiers as killed in action, the Avitan family sat shiva, Eyal said. “But our doubts never went away because of the lack of proof. There were those in the intelligence community who believed that the soldiers were still alive. We hung onto that hope.”
In January 2004, with the help of German mediators, Hezbollah returned three coffins, along with Elhanan Tannenbaum, 54, who was lured to Lebanon for a drug deal gone awry.
In exchange, the IDF and the Israel Prison Authority released 429 “security prisoners and administrative detainees,” and “relocated” the bodies of 60 Lebanese and members of Hezbollah from the IDF’s Cemetery of the Fallen Enemy to Lebanon.
Do the math: Israel released 429 living people and 60 bodies in exchange for one living man and three dead bodies.
Listening to Avitan was painful; his family’s story is nightmarish and the gaping hole in their lives is palpable. But theirs is also part of a larger story, one that has claimed three soldiers, missing since last summer.
On June 25, 20-year-old Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by terrorists from sovereign Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip. Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad’s return.
Last July 12, reserve soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were patrolling the northern border with Lebanon when they were kidnapped.
Despite rumors, nothing has been learned about their situation or wellbeing.
Regev and Goldwasser’s families have traveled the world to meet with supporters, heads of state and lawmakers. To no avail.
Last November, I met Ehud’s wife, Karnit Goldwasser, who described the grueling matter of waking up each morning alone and getting through each day without her new husband.
This Yom HaZikaron, the community also honored Ron Arad, who was abducted after bailing out of his crippled warplane in October 1986. He has not been heard from since 1987.
Guy Hever has been missing since August 1997, when he was last seen standing at a junction one kilometer from the Syrian border.
Tzvi Feldman, Zcharya Baumel and Yehuda Katz have been missing since June 1982, just hours before a ceasefire ended the Lebanon War.
It’s been too long. These are dark days in Israel. Its 58th year was tumultuous and painful. The road map to peace may be a maze, but we must stay committed to navigating a way to light and quiet.
As the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said during the days of optimism about the Oslo accord, “Enough of blood and tears. Enough.”
May the memories of the fallen soldiers be for a blessing and may we find peace.
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