Israel Update for July 2008

David Dolan

The Israeli public was saddened and distressed to finally learn for certain in mid July that two reserve soldiers abducted by Lebanese Hizbullah forces in 2006 were deceased. Widely anticipated confirmation of their deaths came in an exceptionally cruel manner-via a terse Hizbullah announcement broadcast around the world just seconds before two simple black coffins containing their remains were placed on Lebanese soil in preparation for transport to Israel.

The handover of the fallen soldier's bodies came in exchange for Israel freeing several notorious Lebanese terrorists as part of a government endorsed, and very controversial, "prisoner exchange" between the Jewish state and the extremist Shiite group. Hizbullah's clerical leaders hailed the deal as yet another "magnificent victory for the Lebanese resistance" movement which brought the country to the brink of civil war just a few months ago.

A senior Israeli military intelligence officer warned cabinet ministers soon after the dramatic exchange took place that heavily armed Hizbullah forces appeared to be preparing to launch additional terrorist assaults along the country's tense northern border. Political analysts speculated that such attacks, if they come, would probably be under orders from the group's main regional sponsor, Iran, whose Shiite Muslim leaders wish to divert world attention from their continuing uranium enrichment program in defiance of UN sanctions. All this came as Iran's other main ally, Syria, appeared to be inching closer to serious peace talks with Israel-a possible further reason for Iran to provoke a fresh conflict in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile two bizarre Palestinian terrorist attacks took place in Jerusalem, both involving bulldozers. The second assault came just hours before American presidential candidate Barack Obama was scheduled to arrive at the nearby King David Hotel. In the Gaza Strip, the June ceasefire between Israel and the extremist Sunni Muslim Hamas group was threatened by more rocket attacks upon nearby Israeli communities. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert-who is likely to be replaced as Kadima party leader during a primary vote scheduled for mid September, thereby losing his grip on power-warned Hamas leaders that a major IDF military operation could still be launched at any time if the ceasefire violations do not end.

Rest In Peace

Slain IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were finally laid to rest in their beloved homeland after being abducted from inside Israel's border with Lebanon on July 12th 2006. An international campaign to secure their release, involving many international dignitaries spurred on by their devoted families, had been conducted ever since. The missing soldiers were part of a five man unit patrolling along the border fence in two army humvees that were suddenly struck by Hizbullah anti-tank rockets from across the border. The three other soldiers were instantly killed in the heinous assault.

Autopsies revealed that Goldwasser sustained a fatal chest wound during the unprovoked attack, while Regev was probably instantly killed when a bullet penetrated his skull, possibly while attempting to flee from infiltrating Hizbullah terrorists. Their bodies were confiscated by the rogue militia and held for ransom, while information concerning their fate was withheld in a transparent attempt by the militant Lebanese group to up the price in any future "prisoner exchange" with the detested "Zionist entity." Israeli army and government leaders had always suspected that both reserve soldiers were killed during the raid, but confirmation only came as their remains were being delivered to Israel as part of the "prisoner swap" brokered by Germany.

Their abductions, and the subsequent deaths of five other soldiers slain later in the day while trying to retrieve the two men, dead or alive, would prove to be the catalyst for a 34 day war with Hizbullah militia forces in Lebanon-callously featuring the longest sustained missile bombardment of civilian population centers in any conflict on this troubled planet since World War Two.

Ehud Goldwasser, who held a degree in environmental engineering studies, was buried just one day before what would have been his 33rd birthday. The somber ceremony, attended by hundreds of Israelis including government and religious officials, was held in the northern border town of Nahariya, where he resided with his wife. The popular seaside resort community suffered heavy Hizbullah missile barrages during the war. His grieving father Shlomo, who had tirelessly campaigned for his beloved son's release, thanked "the entire Jewish nation" for its support during his family's long ordeal, saying stirringly that "this nation is our answer to (Hizbullah leader Hassan) Nasrallah, who is trying to play with our emotions."

Elad Regev, just 26 when abducted and studying pre-law at Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University, was laid to rest in the city of Haifa, which also suffered many missile strikes during the Second Lebanon War. Both funerals were broadcast live on all three Israeli television channels on what became an unofficial day of mourning throughout the Jewish state.

The High Cost Of Honour

In exchange for recovering the remains of the two abducted soldiers on July 16th, Israeli leaders agreed to free Samir Kuntar, the most notorious Lebanese terrorist imprisoned in the country. That move-hailed by many in Lebanon and indeed throughout the Arab world as further evidence of Hizbullah's increasingly prominent role in the struggle to "liberate Palestine," i.e. to destroy Israel - was highly criticized by opposition Likud party leaders and many other politicians, along with not a few Israeli commentators. Four other Hizbullah fighters captured during the Second Lebanon War were also released from captivity, along with the remains of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters who fell into IDF hands during or after the 1982 Israeli operation to push Yasser Arafat and his PLO fighters out of the Land of the Cedars.

The 48 year old Kuntar, a member of Lebanon's minority Druze community, was just 16 when he volunteered to lead a group of four members of the Palestinian "Popular Liberation Front" on a terrorist raid into Israel in 1979. Setting out before midnight from the Lebanese port of Tyre, the group landed in a rubber dingy on a beach located in the very seaside town where Goldwasser was laid to rest. They immediately shot dead a local Israeli policeman who spotted them, and then proceeded to break into the nearby apartment of Danny and Smadat Haran. Smadar managed to hide in a crawl space with her two year old daughter Yael, along with a neighbor who rushed to their apartment when the policeman was shot dead. But Danny and four year old daughter Einat were taken captive by the terrorist gang. Yael tragically suffocated as her terrified mother tried to suppress her toddlers whimpering in an attempt to spare all three lives.

Danny and Einat were quickly taken to the nearby beach by Kunter and his terrorist comrades as local security personnel hurried to the scene. The Israeli father was then shot dead and tossed in the sea in front of his hysterical young daughter. Kuntar then picked up the screaming four year old Einat and bashed her head against some rocks on the beach. Then to make sure she was dead, he crushed her fractured skull with the butt of his rifle. The brutal young terrorist was given five life sentences by an Israeli court in 1980 (Israel has no official death penalty, although an exception was made for notorious Nazi killer Adolph Eichmann, who was hung to death in 1962).