Baltimore Jewish Times

Deal with the Devil

It’s official.
Ehud “Udi” Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are dead. Their bodies were handed over by Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas to Israeli officials on Wednesday.
This ends the hope that their families, all Israelis, American Jews and many others had that the Israelis would be reunited, alive, with their loved ones. Worse yet, in exchange for the soldiers’ remains, Israel is turning over Samir Kuntar to Hezbollah. Kuntar is alive and well despite having killed three Israeli civilians in 1979, including smashing the skull of a four-year-old girl with his rifle butt.
Israel captured and tried Kuntar. He was found guilty and has spent the last 29 years alive and healthy in an Israeli prison. Since Israel doesn’t have a death penalty, he’ll return to Lebanon with a hero’s welcome.
Udi and Eldad didn’t have the same fate. The two were captured and killed after Hezbollah guerillas crossed into Israel almost two years ago to the day. Hezbollah said then that the attack was intended to win the release for the “resistance” fighter, Kuntar.
Two years later, the terrorist organization has its way.
I can’t stand that Israel had to make the Solomon-like decision: Do we trade the bodies of two illegally kidnapped soldiers for a baby killer who’s been cared for by Israel?
Why does a democratic society that grants due process to terrorists have to give in to these demands? Won’t this perpetuate the vicious cycle of terror on innocent civilians and allow the killer to go free in exchange for corpses?
Still, the majority of Israelis favored the swap; the Goldwasser family heavily lobbied Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to make the exchange. They needed closure. They had to know their son’s fate.
This is sad ending to the events that lead to the Israel-Hezbollah War, precipitated by the kidnapping of Udi and Eldad on July 12, 2006. After the conflict broke out, I went to Israel with the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. Because I had slept through a breakfast meeting, I stumbled into a small gathering with Karnit Goldwasser, Udi’s wife of 10 months at the time. Her father in-law Sholmo was there, as was my friend Mark Wright.
Listening to her story, you couldn’t help but want to do something – anything—to move the needle slightly in her favor. We found ourselves promising to help build international support to push Hezbollah to release her husband. By the time we returned home, she had become a fixture on U.S. television with her optimism and engaging looks.
We did our best to follow through on our pledge. We crated and gave out blue rubber bracelets with the captured soldiers’ names on them (including that of Gilad Shalit, who is still held by Hamas). We worked the local media; we spoke out for action.
Karnit quickly became an international cause de celebrite. The love she exuded for her newlywed husband made her even more beautiful as her face lit up when speaking about her joy when they would be reunited.
Now I find myself opposed to Karnit’s wishes—to trade Udi’s body for the murderer Kuntar. I’m sure if my spouse were taken from me, I would trade anything I have for her. But I’m concerned that the soldier/Kuntar swap will only encourage heartless, lawless societies to continue their barbaric behavior. More Israelis and young brides like Karnit could lose 31-year-old husbands to terrorists.
I haven’t e-mailed or spoken with Karnit in more than a year, and I can’t imagine her mixed emotions – bringing closure to this horrible ordeal but never realizing the many dreams for her marriage with Udi, some of which she shared with me.
Her last e-mail thanked me for what little work I could do for her and signed it by saying “and I hope the next time I see you it will be with Udi.”
Now I can only see Udi in pictures on the Internet. He was probably killed when he was attacked and I would have never have had the opportunity.
This is a sad day. My heart aches for Karnit, for all the Goldwassers and the Regevs. Worse though, my heart aches for Israeli society, which had to do a deal with the devil to end this chapter.

Posted by on 07/16/08 at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

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