25 years of faith, hope, and love 

By Patrick Reilly
Special to ASSIST News Service  

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (ANS) – Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, three members of the Israeli Defence Force, were remembered with special prayers on Monday, June 11th, by their families in Israel and by family and friends around the world who were praying for their safe return.

The three young Israeli soldiers have been missing in action (MIA) for 25 years and two weeks from when they were taken captive during the 1982 Lebanon war, just hours before an agreed ceasefire ended the bloody battle. Their capture followed a night of fierce fighting against Syrian and Palestinian forces during the first war with Lebanon on June 11th 1982, near the village of Sultan Yakoub, when their tanks were hit with anti-tank missiles.Twenty-one IDF soldiers lost their lives in the battle code named “Operation Peace for Galilee”. Two were able to hide in an orange grove until rescued, while two other members of the IDF were taken hostage along Zachary, Zvi and Yehuda but were released a few years later in a prisoner exchange.

 Yona Baumel, father of Zachary an American citizen who was born in New York, has devoted his life to discovering his son’s whereabouts and ultimately the return of his Zachary and the others. Over the years he has spent tens of thousands of dollars traveling the globe in the search for information.Through his contacts with Mossad, Israelis secret service, Yona travelled to communist Russia to meet with KGB agents who gave him vital information of Zachary’s condition. His quest has also taken him into to Syria and a meeting with senior PLO officials in Tunisia in the search for his “boy”. His every breath and step is for his “son”.

Each of the MIA’s family members has suffered in their own personal tragic ways. The toll of the burden has affected each one individually. Yet they all share common experiences. While living between hope and despair daily for twenty-five years, how many sleepless nights they have had no one knows, so many have stopped counting. 24 hours, day and night, the simple everyday things in life can trigger memories. Everything reminds them of their heartache and suffering of their souls.

Pirhiya is Yehuda Katz big sister. Talking in a Jerusalem café with her last week, she looks at a bottle of water for a moment and then tells me “that’s Yehuda’s favourite water.” She continued, “There is no escape from it. Whatever we do, were ever we go what ever we see. It’s 24/7”.

On Sabbath and religious festivals, the families always prepare a place and a meal for their missing, precious loved ones, faithfully praying and hoping they will one day be back among them. That day their mourning will turn to dancing and they will once more rejoice and will hear the sound of joy and laughter again.

For the families Katz and Feldman the fate of their son’s cruel captivity has kept the memories and experiences of the Holocaust alive for them. Both families had to flee Europe for their lives, leaving behind so many family and friends whose names are now counted among the six million Jews who perished in the Ghettos and concentration camps during World War Two.

Today all the relatives of the MIA’s wear a mask of normality as they try to go about an everyday routine in life. All around them so much has changed while their own lives have been held captive for twenty-five years. It’s in the quiet hours that the mask will come off as they pray and cry.

Yehuda’s sister, Pirhiya was only seven when he was born, but remembers the day he came into the world vividly. With both parents working hard to earn a living and learn a new language it was Yehuda’s big sister’s responsibility to look after him. She loved him.

As she recalled sweet and precious memories of her little brother, her eyes smiled with love for him. “I did everything for him. I was like his mother and as he grew up he used to go everywhere with me”. As she talks of them growing up you hear of a very close bond, a true and deep love between a brother and sister.

June 11th 1982 is a day Pirhiya can never forget. The day is seared into her heart and soul. As she clearly remembers it her smiling eyes become eyes of sadness and sorrow.

That morning Pirhiya went to work as usual, but arriving at work she stunned her boss and colleagues by resigning from her job the moment she walked in. She could offer no reasonable explanation to herself let alone her boss or the others but as she left work she knew deep in her soul that something was not right.

“When I got home I put on the television and the radio, they were broadcasting messages from soldiers on the front line” she said. The broadcasts were from soldiers going into battle recoding their messages of love to their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and wives. They were brief words of strength, hope and love. “Don’t worry,” some said. “I’ll be home safe with you all soon. Tell everyone I love and miss them”.

Although she listened and watched intently, Pirhiya heard no such words of comfort from her little brother, Yehuda, and her fears grew ever deeper and darker. That which they feared over came them.

On the day we met in Jerusalem, Pirhiya had applied for a visa to visit Syria to ask President Bashar al-Assad face to face to show compassion, mercy and bring a speedily end to their twenty-five years of suffering pain and misery.

The Feldman family were also forced to flee Europe as the Nazi killing machine rounded up Jews for slaughter. As with the family Katz, the capture of their son has kept the Holocaust a living, everyday, all too real memory. Pain is just as severe as the others.

In the Mid 1990’s Avraham, Zvi’s father and his mother meet with Pope John Paul II and begged him in Polish to find a solution for “Zvi and the boys.” Shortly after returning to Israel tragedy struck the family again when Avraham developed the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease. He passed away recently without ever knowing if his son was alive or dead.
Over the last twenty-five years the families have had to fight an international campaign to try and secure the MIA’s release. The United Nations, the International Red Cross nor Amnesty International have been able to reason with Syria successfully in revealing what they know of Zachary, Zvi and Yehuda.

Another cruel, unjust twist to their anguish is the claims and counter claims over the years that their sons and brothers are dead. They forced to fight a legal battle over the decision to declare the “Sultan Yacoub Three’ missing in action, presumed dead. With no evidence to prove the men were dead the families won their day in court but it only added to their grief and suffering.

The hopes of the families have been raised over the years by compelling evidence counter acting the claim they are dead.

In 1993 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat produced half of the American citizen Zachary Baumel’s disc kit (dog tag) attached to an army green coloured lace. His promise to reveal more about Zachary’s whereabouts came to nothing and what he knew he took to the grave when he died in 2004.

In 2005 Yona Baumel revealed he had received part of a book through his network of contacts, which was said to have been in the prison cell in Syria where Zachary was held captive.

Underlined in the book are the letters that spell out Zachary’s name and makes references to a family joke that no one else could possibly know. The words “hope”, “help” and “faith” are also heavily emphasized by small blue dots underneath the individual letters.

On the 25th anniversary of the battle that changed their lives forever, Yona Baumel invited me to his apartment in Jerusalem to meet his wife Miriam. Their apartment is one floor up and 80-year-old Baumel takes him time climbing the flight of stairs to his front door. He stops midway to catch his breath. The stress of Zachary’s capture has taken its toll on the Baumels, physically and physiologically like all the other families with missing children. Yona has suffered two major heart attacks over the years. During his last heart attack, Yona briefly talked of seeing “another world” as Doctors battled to save his life. He has no doubts a miracle took place and many prayers were answered.

Miriam Baumel is a beautiful Jewish woman, with a warm and welcoming smile, has kept her strong New York accent. Looking at her it’s hard to believe she is the grandmother of seven, from Zachary’s older brother and sister.

Nowadays, Miriam likes to spend most of her time in the apartment, where she focuses on her arts and crafts while sitting at the kitchen table. The portable television is on mainly as a background companion. She likes to watch the BBC and METV, which broadcasts among other Christian programmes Pat Robertson’s 700 Hundred Club. She keeps a notebook and pen handy as she writes down scriptures that are broadcast.

Miriam handed me a gift. It’s a bookmaker she has made. On the front of the marker is the word ‘ahava’: love in Hebrew beautifully handed written. On the back Miriam writes the words “please help bring home Israeli MIA’s and hostages” in English and Hebrew.
She gives them away hoping that others will help.

Yona has a small office in his apartment, which is his command centre where he spends much of his time trying to secure his son’s release. The walls are covered with photographs of family and friends. His computer is constantly switched on as he continues his international campaign to free Zachary. Yona is grateful for his grand children’s IT skills as they gladly help and teach him on his computer. “I get the grand kids to do it” he say’s smiling. The office is full of memories. Yona directs my attention to a piece of army green lace hanging from a cabinet door. “Zachary’s dog tag was attached to it”, he told me sadly. The ends of the lace are frayed, cut from Zachary’s neck. Holding the lace, I looked into his eyes and saw his anguish and broken heart. I could say nothing to him so silently prayed.

The half disc that was handed over by Yassa Arafat in 1993 is kept close to Miriam’s heart.

Twenty-five years is a long time to carry the burden of a missing child but the families are absolute in their resolve to have them returned home.

Yona tells me that “faith, hope and love” have sustained him through the ordeal. He believes in the G_D of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the eternal creator of Heaven and Earth. He prays that he will one day yet rejoice as Jacob did when reunited with Joseph. His faith in the God of Israel who commanded Pharaoh through Moses to “let his people go” gives him hope.

The love, support and prayers of others around the world he says had also given him strength and hope.

As a schoolboy growing up in New York, Zachary soon made friends with a classmate named Stuart Ditchek. “Two of the naughtiest kids in the class”, Yona recalls.

The boys said goodbye when the Baumels moved to Israel in 1970. They were just 9 years of age at the time, but the love and friendship would last a lifetime.

Today Zachary’s best friend Stuart Ditchek, is a Pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics at the NYU Medical School. He devotes his spare time and energy to campaigning across the Untied States for his friend’s safe return. His loyal campaign reached the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and up to the White House, when on November 8, 1999 President Bill Clinton signed the MIA bill; a public law “To Locate and Secure the Release of Zachary Baumel, a United States Citizen, and Other Israeli Soldiers Missing in Action”.

In a letter to American Jewish leaders, President Clinton wrote, “I have signed the Act [H.R. 1175] into law. I believe it will send a powerful message of solidarity with the families of the missing soldiers and of our determination to do everything possible to resolve their cases. We will pursue every concrete lead to ascertain their fate; we will continue to consult closely with the families and the government of Israel; and we will raise the issue with other governments and with the Palestinian Authority.”
Stuart is the founder of the Committee for the Release of Zachary Baumel has set up a website www.zacharybaumel.org.

Yona and Miriam are eternally grateful for all the love and support they receive.

Another frequent welcome friend and visitor to the Baumel home is Canon Andrew White, “the Vicar of Baghdad”, when he is in Jerusalem. Yona describes Andrew as a “man doing G_D’s work.”

It is almost twenty-five years and two weeks of not knowing anything about Zachary, Yehuda or Zvi and yet they go on hoping and praying for a miracle. The miracle Yona longs and prays for is to have his boy back and to see his sweet Miriam dance for joy, full of love joy and laughter as she did when they married more than fifty years ago.

The families of the ‘Sultan Yakoub Three’ are not the only families in Israel who have sons, brothers, husbands numbered among Israel’s missing Children.

The families of Guy Hever, Ron Arad, Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit have suffered the same awful fate. Their loved ones snatched, taken hostage and kept as “prized trophies of war” because they are Jewish, descendants of Abraham, a friend of G-D.  

This morning the parents of 21-year-old Gilad Shalit arose after what must have been a sleepless night. Today is the first anniversary of when their son was kidnapped by Palestinian militants, as he patrolled the Israeli side of the border on 25th June 2006.

His abductors sole intention was to kidnap an IDF Solider. Using a network of underground tunnels into Israel they succeeded in their mission and Gilad disappeared into the frightening dark and vicious back streets of the Gaza strip.

At the weekend Gilad’s parents’ hopes were raised when Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said on Saturday that Hamas is willing to renew negotiations over the release Gilad in exchange for an Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners. The news also raises the hope of the families Baumel, Katz, Feldman, Arad, Goldwasser and Regev.  

The hope and prayers of Gilad’s family and the determination to bring him home safely were intensified this afternoon on the anniversary of his abduction when an audio tape of Gilad speaking was posted on the Web site of Hamas’s military wing. In the coerced recorded message Gilad talks of his deteriorating ill health.

He say’s “Mother and father, my sister and brother, my friends in the Israel Defense Forces. I greet you from prison and miss you all I have spent a full year in prison, and my health is still deteriorating, and I need a prolonged hospitalization. In the message, posted on the Web site of Hamas’s military wing,

The most recent video broadcast of the BBC journalist Alan Johnson held hostage for 105 day’s in Gaza forced to wear a body belt packed with explosives around his is an awful reminder to the families of Israel’s MIA’s of the ideology of death that the captors of their children religiously believe in.
In the UK the Rev Rob Carroll has also campaigned endlessly on Behalf of Israel’s missing children, the MIA’s, and has loved and supported the families. The retired British Police officer has travelled throughout the Middle East and Europe over the years to investigate the disappearance of the missing service men. A leading figure of miauk.org, he is encouraging Christians around the globe to support the families of the MIA’s with prayer and faith in action.

“It’s a humble honour to pray for all these precious souls who have endured more than twenty-five long years of almost silent uncertainty with regards to their dear ones. As Christians we are called and commanded to share the burden of others and my heart breaks when I think of their grief and suffering.” He told Assist news

Bob’s work’s work with the MIA’s and their families has come to the attention of the World Zionist Organization, who has named him as one of the recipients of the “Jerusalem Prize” 2007, for his “outstanding commitment to investigate intelligence and the ultimate release of Israel’s MIA’s.

Bob is inviting assist news readers to prayerfully support Israel’s missing children and their families by logging onto www.miauk.org to sign a petition or send a message of support to the families through the contact page of the website.