Like many Israelis I feared Gilad Shalit would die in captivity. However, we were wrong, Gilad is coming home!
Two years ago I wrote about a meeting between Minister of Defence Ehud Barak and a group of Israeli high school students. In an oblique reference to Gilad Shalit a senior student due to be called up for military service asked
“If I fall into enemy hands can the state guarantee my safety?”
Barak's answer was blunt and to the point. “The state can't even guarantee you will stay alive." He said facing the student but directing his remarks to attentive ears in Gaza. "The state of Israel is willing to do anything to free kidnapped soldiers – but not at any price."
Later the same day a Hamas spokesman made an oblique reference to Barak's reply indicating that the message had been received.
TV. Channel 10 reporter Raviv Drucker griped about “Israel's emotional obsession with Shalit.”… “There is no nice way to say it: we've gone ‘overboard’ about Gilad Shalit,” Drucker continued,” The whole country is caught up in an emotional obsession. Our national agenda is a brief one line slogan – release Gilad, and to hell with the price,”
Expressing sympathy with the Shalit family Drucker concluded, “It's true that if I were Gilad's father, I'd do everything to set him free, but that's exactly the difference between the interests of a single family and the interests of a state.”
Quoted "off the record" Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak once complained about all the fuss being made "for the sake of one soldier." Nevertheless, Mubarak, not entirely for altruistic reasons, has repeatedly tried to broker a prisoner exchange with Hamas aimed at bringing about Shalit's release.
Ehud Barak's blunt retort and Drucker’s brash remarks stand out in sharp contrast to the Shalit family's quiet subdued manner, their almost apologetic appeal for help. Noam and Aviva Shalit have stoically accepted many rebuffs and faced repeated disappointments. They are truly the "salt of the earth."
They are not alone in their struggle. A formidable army of volunteers has waged a war against apathy and the "not at any price" attitude.
The problem is the price is never right and at times the negotiations for a prisoner exchange are more like horse-trading than an equitable deal.
So how do I explain the government’s change of heart?
Reporting for the Washington Post Joel Greenberg wrote “The consummation of a deal between the sworn adversaries after years of fruitless negotiations reflected the pressures facing both Israel and Hamas at a time of region-wide uprisings and a rapidly shifting Middle Eastern landscape.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously warned that a swap for Shalit would free dangerous militants and put Israel’s security at risk. But amid a relentless campaign by Shalit’s family that won the hearts of the Israeli public, Netanyahu ultimately bowed. In remarks Tuesday night, he acknowledged that Israel, which has become increasingly isolated amid the regional tumult, was faced with the stark choice of winning Shalit’s freedom now or seeing the chance disappear forever.
Hamas, meanwhile, receives a much-needed boost from the deal at a time when it has been overshadowed by Fatah, its chief rival, which has led a popular bid at the United Nations for Palestinian statehood . By winning the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Hamas can claim an achievement that had long eluded the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.
Still, the move eliminates one of Hamas’s chief bargaining chips in its dealings with Israel.”
In the past the head of the General Security Services (GSS/Shabak) and the director of the Mossad opposed a deal that involved freeing a large number of Palestinian terrorists. They feared that after their release they would engage in terrorist activities again. Many on the list of Palestinian prisoners about to be released possess organisational ability and are capable of establishing Hamas terrorist cells.
In an effort to minify the repetitive offender risk, the most potentially dangerous prisoners will be sent to the Gaza Strip, others will be exiled and the rest will be released in stages to their homes in the West Bank
The new heads of the GSS and the Mossad, the IDF chief of staff and the prime minister himself believe it is worth taking the risk.
Labour party leader Shelly Yachimovich supported the proposed prisoner exchange. “Rejecting it,” she said, “presented a greater danger to Israel’s security. Our soldiers’ moral fibre is just as much a security factor as the security risks involved in the current prisoner exchange deal.”
At a special cabinet meeting held on Tuesday night Prime Minister Netanyahu referred specifically to the price and the possible consequences of freeing 1,027 terrorists, among them many murderers. Mentioning the bereaved families of the people killed by Palestinian terrorists, some of whom had opposed exchanging terrorists for Israeli prisoners, he reminded them that he too was a member of a bereaved family. His brother Yonatan Netanyahu was killed at Entebbe freeing Israeli hostages.
There’s a link between Yonatan Netanyahu and the event I intended devoting this entire letter to.
Last week we attended a cenotaph inauguration ceremony held near the pipeline road not far from the Nafah army base on the Golan Heights.
As we left our bus and approached the cenotaph I recalled Hosni Mubarak‘s remark about all the fuss being made "for the sake of one soldier." In this instance the cenotaph was erected for the sake of two soldiers killed in the Yom Kippur War, Lieutenant Colonel David Yisraeli, second in command of the 188th Armoured Brigade and Lieutenant Yoav Barkai, a reserve army tank commander serving in the 179th Armoured Brigade. Both died in the battle to contain the massive Syrian attack on the Golan Heights.
Yoav and his wife Leora were our neighbours. Their children and our children played together. Their youngest child Topaz was born four months after her father was killed in action. A few years later Leora and her children moved to Katzrin on the Golan Heights not far from the place where Yoav was killed. During her childhood, youth and adult life she accepted the narrative of her father’s death unquestioningly. He was the father she never knew, so there was little reason to delve into the past to discover the exact circumstances of his death. Then suddenly, two years ago this remarkable woman decided to find out what happened on that terrible day, the 7th of October, 1973.
At this juncture I want to quote from Christopher Bellamy’s book “The Future of Land Warfare.” Professor Bellamy served as an artillery officer in the British army prior to becoming a distinguished journalist reporting for the Independent on defence related topics. Later still he went on to pursue an academic career in War Studies.
The Syrians had the advantage of surprise, numbers and better tanks. Delaying the Syrian advance was of critical importance. Bellamy describes the battle scene as follows, “The Golan Heights occupies a surprisingly small area. From its western most edge it is only 50 km to Acre and the sea. There is no strategic depth, no free space in which to manoeuvre. Every centimetre of that slab of terrain captured in 1967 is strategically important.” Describing the battle it’s difficult for Bellamy to be impartial; he obviously admires the Israelis’ versatility and ability to turn a seemingly hopeless situation to their advantage.
“It was the archetypal tank battle to date. It was massive, violent and continuous. As the Syrians rolled across the plain they sometimes became intermixed with the Israeli tanks which swung their turrets round as the Syrians passed them and continued to fire. Some of the Israeli fortifications in the plain continued to hold as the advancing armour lapped round them, delaying Syrian forces which had to be diverted to deal with them, providing valuable intelligence and adjusting Israeli fire, a clear indicator of the value of such stay behind parties’ and fortifications. As the Syrian tanks came on they engaged them one by one: target – traverse! – range – fire. The average time to destroy a Syrian tank once spotted was about five seconds. When they ran out of ammunition they had to go back and get more – it was virtually impossible to bring resupply forward. At the beginning most of the Syrian tanks were Soviet made T-54s and T-55s, but later they brought in the T-62s, which should have been able to outshoot and out-manoeuvre the Israeli Pattons and Centurions.
However another timeless truth worked for the Israelis; it takes time and practice to learn to operate a complex weapons system, and the long experience the Israelis had of theirs combined with superior training and the higher level of education, initiative and skill of the individual Israeli told time and again as they picked off target after target.”
Describing behaviour under fire Chris Bellamy was scrupulously fair.
“Incredible bravery was shown on both sides. The crews of Syrian tanks hit in the tracks continued to fire from stationary positions until they were shot apart. Because the T-54s and T-55s carry their ammunition in the turret, the risk of explosion was great, and even if they didn’t explode immediately they caught fire.”
Once again he points out how ingenuity and versatility helped the IDF positions and the few remaining tanks to hold on and further delay the Syrians.
“As night fell the Syrians gained an advantage, as they had better night vision equipment. However, the Israelis managed to avoid disaster by using illuminating shells fired from artillery. Artillery was brought down right on top of the beleaguered fortifications to sweep off Syrian infantry while from direct fire positions the Israeli tanks engaged their Syrian counterparts, a clear example of the need to use each weapon for what it is best at in a mutually supportive scheme.
The Syrians continued to advance head on, wave after wave. They did not change the direction of their attacks, more out of pride, one suspects, than inability to conceive other courses of action. Although the tactics were clumsy, their major objectives had been selected with skill and showed detailed knowledge of the Israeli dispositions. One objective was the Jacob’s Daughters’ Bridge, the main line of communication for all the Israeli forces in the central Golan Heights. Other tanks swung south down the old pipeline road, connecting north Golan with the south. Sheer weight of numbers had to tell and by midday on Sunday 7th of October Syrian forces were within 8km of Jacob’s Daughters Bridge. At this stage the first trickle of IDF reserve forces had arrived.”
In an article that appeared in Ein Harod’s internal journal Topaz describes her father’s “last battle.” Yoav was a reserve army officer who served with the armoured corps’ 179th brigade. Units of the brigade joined with the permanent army’s188th tank brigade near Nafah. Topaz told how the opportunity to discover more details about the battle arose when she worked as Katzrin municipality’s spokeswoman. Using both personal contacts and IDF facilities she received her fathers call up folder that contained his tank licence, a receipt entitling him to be reimbursed for travel expenses from Ein Harod to the base camp near Rosh Pina and half of his IDF indentity disk . A broken disk indicates that its owner was killed in action.
Six months later Topaz was chosen by the IDF’s casualties administrative division to take part in an army delegation sent to Poland. In preparation for the journey she set about researching the battle at Nafah. Topaz described how accompanied by the brigade commander at Nafah and a patrol officer they retraced the stages of the battle. A short distance along the pipeline road they came to a lone cypress tree and a small cenotaph. The inscription told how David Yisraeli the 188th brigade’s second in command joined Yoav’s tank after his own was hit. Till that moment they had never met, now they continued the battle with only two shells to fire and their Browning machine gun to ward off enemy infantry. Both of them were killed after Yoav’s tank was hit by Syrian fire.
While she was gathering this information Topaz discovered more details in a recently published book on the crucial first stages of the battle for the Golan Heights. At about the same time she met a group of 188 brigade veterans who had spent five years piecing together the battle details. Their research led to the publication of the book. She also learnt that two members of the Centurion’s crew survived the hit that disabled the tank. After contacting them they told her the complete story of Yoav’s last hours.
Erecting a more fitting cenotaph for David and Yoav proved to be a formidable task. Initially it was a family project preparing the site, planting flowers and installing a Centurion’s turret replete with canon which Topaz’s brother Ravid managed to acquire. The 188 brigade command was quick to support the project however; getting the ministry of defence to recognize and support their efforts was delayed by endless bureaucracy.
Late on Thursday afternoon a large crowd of friends and relatives of the two families – Yisraeli and Barkai participated in a very moving and impressive ceremony inaugurating the cenotaph. Perhaps the most tangible climax of the ceremony was when in response to a signal from the brigade commander an IDF Merkava III tank roared over the crest behind the cenotaph and lined up next to the old Centurion’s turret and cannon.
By clicking on the hyperlink below you will be able to see a video of the cenotaph inauguration ceremony.
You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/30383662
 | Untitled Involves Beni Kaye. |
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Three footnotes:
- The 188th brigade was almost completely destroyed in the confrontation with the Syrian forces . 112 soldiers were killed including the brigade commander.
After the Yom Kippur War Yonatan Netanyahu was entrusted with the task of rebuilding the brigade.
- The name Pipeline Road was constructed to service the now defunct oil pipeline of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company. Oil was pumped through the pipeline from Saudi Arabia through Jordan and Syria until reaching its oil export terminal in Sidon on the coast of Lebanon. It stopped functioning in 1976.
- Like most people I thought Jacob’s Daughters Bridge referred to a ford where the patriarch and his daughters crossed the River Jordan. However, there’s no specific biblical reference linking Jacob to this place.
Little sisters and daughters are commonly used by the Catholic church in names given to various orders of nuns.
A mediaeval order of nuns centred in Safed known as the Daughters of James (the Hebrew name Jacob is often translated as James), were allowed by the Turks to charge a toll on the bridge. We probably will never know the answer to the name riddle. A number of bridges were built over the river at the ford and destroyed one after the other. A relatively new bridge still honouring Jacob’s daughters replaced two older IDF Bailey bridges.
We are celebrating Sukkot , the Feast of Tabernacles .
Chag Sameach
Beni 13th of October, 2011
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