Freeing Garbage for IDF soldiers

Amid the backdrop of a terrible human tragedy, the Israeli cabinet approved Sunday the prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah, which will facilitate the return of IDF captives Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

Despite all the announcements to the families of Regev and Goldwasser, Israel's intelligence community changed it's mind over the past few weeks and their assessment is that the 2 missing IDF soldiers are dead.

In return for the 2 [dead?] soldiers, among those Israel will be releasing is the notorious Samir Kuntar. In an incredible show of personal dignity, Smadar Haran, the widow of Danny Haran (murdered by Kuntar) wrote to Israel's Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter stating she had no objections to Kuntar's release. The letter was read at today's cabinet meeting.

"The despicable, vile murderer Samir Kuntar isn’t, nor has he ever been, my private prisoner. Kuntar is a prisoner of the State, which sentenced him to five terms if life imprisonment for his vicious crimes," she wrote.

"His fate must be decided now, according to Israel's best defensive needs and moral interests, which should serve the people of Israel, now and in the future.

"I ask that my own personal pain not be taken into account when you deliberate, despite its significance and implications. I cannot overlook the pain and suffering of the Goldwasser and Regev families, or the moral debt I have to all those who have worked for my safety.

To get an idea of what sort of human garbage we are talking about, this is what Smadar Haran wrote in the Washington Post in May 2003. It is must reading to appreciate her current position.

Abu Abbas, the former head of a Palestinian terrorist group who was captured in Iraq on April 15, is infamous for masterminding the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. But there are probably few who remember why Abbas's terrorists held the ship and its 400-plus passengers hostage for two days. It was to gain the release of a Lebanese terrorist named Samir Kuntar, who is locked up in an Israeli prison for life. Kuntar's name is all but unknown to the world. But I know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family.

It was a murder of unimaginable cruelty, crueler even than the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist who was shot on the Achille Lauro and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Kuntar's mission against my family, which never made world headlines, was also masterminded by Abu Abbas. And my wish now is that this terrorist leader should be prosecuted in the United States, so that the world may know of all his terrorist acts, not the least of which is what he did to my family on April 22, 1979.

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

And what do I think?

1. The State of Israel gave up thousands of terrorists over the past 15 years to support the Oslo process which has brought nothing but the deaths of thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers. Rockets continue to pound Southern Israel from Gaza, and terror continues unabated from the West Bank. And in return for giving away thousands of Palestinian terrorists and criminals, we have received exactly nothing. If we are able to tangibly receive captured IDF soldiers (living or dead) by exchanging them for Palestinian terrorists and criminals, then we have a moral responsibility do so. If we "sacraficed" so much for the failed promises of Oslo, then the least we do is get our soldiers back.

2. IDF soldiers grow more cynical daily as they see corrupt leaders of the likes of Ehud Olmert zig-zag on every decision possible. Ensuring the return of Goldwasser and Regev will send a signal to IDF soldiers that despire the corrupt leadership, the country is still willing to "pay the price" for their release. We will not leave them behind, as we have done so often for the past 2 decades.

We owe it to our soldiers -- we ask them to fight for us. The least we can do is bring them home.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Missing Israeli Returns.

Gavriel Dwait's body was returned to Israel last night from Lebanon as part of an exchange with Hizbollah.

The Missing Israeli Returns Home.

Missing? Was he lost? I'd never even heard his name before last night's late news report. No one I've asked has ever heard his name before. I googled his name in Hebrew and English, "Missing Israeli Gavriel Dwait".

The deafening response from Google was "Your Search for "Missing Israeli Gavriel Dwait" did not match any documents."

Had Google been a bit more honest, it would have added the following recommendation for a "better" search result.

There isn't an Israeli alive who hasn't heard of the names "Ehud Goldwasser, Udi Regev, Gilad Shalit, Ron Arad" and many others.

Yet, no one has ever heard of Gavriel Dwait.

Gavriel Dwait, z'l.

Beersheva resident Gavriel Dwait, a Jewish immigrant from Ethiopia, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on January 20, 2005. He was 27 at the time. His parents have been searching and waiting for 2 years and 7 months.

So why haven't we heard of him before? The Israeli police told the family, "eventually, he'll show up." The family hired buses to bring volunteers to look for him on Israel's Northern shores, but to no avail. His body must have washed upshore to Lebanon.

Truth be told, I doubt that anyone in Israel's government had any clue he was missing, and it was probably Hizbollah that surprised Israel with the offer. To make matters worse; this exchange has been in the planning for a few months now, yet no one bothered to even inform Gavriel's family.

You can be sure that the Goldwasser, Regev, Shalit and Arad families are updated all the time from the government on the status of their missing loved ones.

The dirty reason is wrapped up in one word.

Proteczia. noun. protection. essential for survival in Israel.

A family of new immigrants from Ethiopia living in Beersheva has little hope of knowing how to pressure the Israeli police, how to contact the media, or even how to find a Member of Knesset.

Had Gavriel's family been more connected, you can be sure we would have heard his name before...or at least Google would have found a reference to him.

Oh, and the fact that he was Ethiopian probably played a part as well.

Israel has alot of soul searching to do.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael