Giving credit where due, the New York Times published a respectful report about the funerals of Israeli soldiers Sgt. First Class Ehud Goldwasser and Staff Sgt. Eldad Regev (“Funerals in Israel for Two Soldiers,” 7/17/08). The families and all of Israel mourn the deaths of these two men abducted and killed by Hezbollah two years ago.
The article also revealed a distinct difference in the regard to life and compassion between these two opposing sides in the conflict.
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But far from ameliorating the simmering hostility between the sides, the deal has further hardened the feelings of many Israelis, who charged that Hezbollah toyed with the emotions of the families of the missing soldiers up to the very end.
For the last two years, Hezbollah had refused to clarify whether the soldiers — both reservists and students at the time of their capture — were dead or alive, although Israeli officials concluded that both were badly wounded in the initial ambush and had probably not survived.
But the moment of truth did not come until after 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, as the first stage of the exchange got under way at Nakkoura, on the Lebanese side of the border. A Hezbollah representative, Wafiq Safa, announced that the soldiers’ fate would “now be revealed,” and gestured toward two coffins.
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What purpose was served by keeping the fates of these two men hidden for two years? Or for refusing to return their remains so that their grieving families could find some closure? Hezbollah militants harbor such venomous hatred against all Israelis that they have no intent to take any action that brings comfort.
Individuals and organizations that seek peace and justice in the Middle East should be condemning Hezbollah’s actions as vociferously as they do when they object to Israel’s conduct of defensive operations.
(photo released by Israeli Government Press Office: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hugs Karnit Goldwasser, wife of Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser next to his coffin at Shraga army base in northern Israel)
The article also revealed a distinct difference in the regard to life and compassion between these two opposing sides in the conflict.
*****
But far from ameliorating the simmering hostility between the sides, the deal has further hardened the feelings of many Israelis, who charged that Hezbollah toyed with the emotions of the families of the missing soldiers up to the very end.
For the last two years, Hezbollah had refused to clarify whether the soldiers — both reservists and students at the time of their capture — were dead or alive, although Israeli officials concluded that both were badly wounded in the initial ambush and had probably not survived.
But the moment of truth did not come until after 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday, as the first stage of the exchange got under way at Nakkoura, on the Lebanese side of the border. A Hezbollah representative, Wafiq Safa, announced that the soldiers’ fate would “now be revealed,” and gestured toward two coffins.
*****
What purpose was served by keeping the fates of these two men hidden for two years? Or for refusing to return their remains so that their grieving families could find some closure? Hezbollah militants harbor such venomous hatred against all Israelis that they have no intent to take any action that brings comfort.
Individuals and organizations that seek peace and justice in the Middle East should be condemning Hezbollah’s actions as vociferously as they do when they object to Israel’s conduct of defensive operations.
(photo released by Israeli Government Press Office: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hugs Karnit Goldwasser, wife of Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser next to his coffin at Shraga army base in northern Israel)
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