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Poster featuring the two that was part of the campaign to free them.
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| By David Bedein June 24, 2008 |
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Israeli intelligence has received new evidence that Sergeant 1st Class Ehud Goldwasser and Staff Sergeant Eldad Regev were murdered by Hizbullah while in captivity. The Israeli Defense Forces' Chief Rabbi, Brigadier-General Rabbi Avichai Ronski, received all the information possessed by the security echelon and the Intelligence Branch of the Israeli army. He has begun examining the documentation.
The Israeli army Human Resources commander, Major-General Eliezer Stern, updated the families of the kidnapped soldiers about the process and promised to update them. Stern promise that any new information will be shared with them first, including any decisions that are made.
On July 12th, 2006, the Hizbullah terrorist organization, based in Lebanon, ambushed an Israeli patrol on the Israel-Lebanon border, killing eight Israeli soldiers and capturing Goldwasser and Regev.
After Israeli intelligence confirmed that Goldwasser and Regev were indeed taken alive, the Israeli government demanded their release. When that demand was not met, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon. Yisrael Maimon, the former Israeli cabinet secretary, briefed the media a few days later and announced that the Israeli army operation in Lebanon would continue until both Israeli soldiers are released. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who arrived in Beirut in late July 2006, met with Hizbullah representatives and assured the world that both Israeli soldiers were still alive. The same confirmation that both soldiers were alive came later from the International Red Cross.
However, Israel agreed to the UN imposed cease fire under UN resolution 1701, on August 15th, 2006, without the Hizbullah releasing the two Israeli POWs. That resulted in an international campaign launched by the government of Israel to demand the release of Goldwasser and Regev.
Israel Insider adds:
Karnit Goldwasser, wife of kidnapped IDF reservist Ehud Goldwasser, reacted with fury to news: "It is a terrible and humiliating day for Israel," she told Channel 2. "I want the country to bring [Goldwasser and Regev] home, but I doubt that it will happen." After hearing the news, she was "boiling with rage" and asked: "Is it not hard enough for us? Have we gone through two years of fun?"
The move came as a surprise to Regev's father, Tzvi: "It's not right to do this. But I have no control over the army," he said.
On Monday former IDF chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen (res.) Moshe Ya'alon spoke out against making unreasonable deals with terror groups:
"In some situations we need to agree to make sacrifices in the face of what is demanded of us, because the price we would have to pay is far heavier than the price of losing a kidnapped soldier," he said, referring not just to Goldwasser and Regev, but also Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas in June 2006. Referring specifically to Shalit, he said that "obviously, if we had the ability to release him through a [military] operation, as we have done in the past, then we should go for it. And I suppose that if we could do so, it would have already been done."
David Bedein publishes Israel Behind the News. |
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