Israel Brings Home Fallen Soldiers

By Joel Leyden

Jerusalem----January 29.....It was a day of tears. Shortly after we awoke our mobile telephones rang with family and friends informing one another of a lethal suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem bus.
As the sun melted into the Mediterranean Sea, the nation sat in front of their television screens to witness the homecoming of three fallen soldiers from the IDF's Combat Engineering Corps. The bodies of the three young soldiers and Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum who was held hostage by the Hezbollah were traded for over 400 Palestinian terrorists.

The three soldiers who were murdered in a cross-border attack in the North were given a state ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The plane carrying the Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three IDF soldiers landed safely at Ben-Gurion Airport at 7 P.M.. The coffins, draped in Israeli flags and carried by soldiers of Handasa Kravit (combat engineers), were led through the gathered crowd of family members, friends and dignitaries. The coffins were laid next to each other in the hangar.

Head of IDF Manpower General Gil Regev opened the ceremony by describing the events that lead to the kidnapping of the three soldiers. "The battle to return the sons home was never removed from Israel's agenda for even one day," Regev said.

Family members, government ministers, IDF and ranking security heads gathered for the solemn ceremony in honor of three fallen Israeli soldiers, which began at 9 P.M. at the airport. The coffins of Omar Sawayid, Benny Avraham and Adi Avitan were openly displayed with a standing honor guard. The soldiers were captured in October 2000 after Hezbollah terrorists set off a bomb next to their jeep on the Israel-Lebanon border. Examinations of the bodies determined that they died shortly after the attack.

Following a sad, touching song sang by a relative of one of the fallen soldiers, two female IDF musicians played a tearful melody from their flutes. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Moshe Katzav and the IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon all spoke, walked over to the coffins and bowed and walked back to their seats. Sharon, a former general, looked visibility angry as he turned away from the coffins.

The Prime Minister said that during this time of sadness, it is important to remember the missing IDF soldiers that have not yet returned home. "We have not forgotten them," Sharon said. "We will not give up, rest or spare resources to bring them home." "This is my personal obligation and the personal obligation of the entire government," he said. Sharon was referring to Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, who have been missing in action since the battle of Sultan Yakub in June 1982, missing IAF navigator Ron Arad and missing IDF soldier Guy Hever.

Sharon described the government's decision to go ahead with the prisoner exchange as a decision based "on Jewish feeling".

"Together they fell in the fire of the enemy, and together they returned to the homeland they were called upon to defend," Sharon said. "May Benny, Adi and Omar be a blessed memory."

Sharon then delivered a sharp warning to all terrorist organizations planning to use the kidnapping of Israelis as a policy in the future. "The State of Israel will not allow its enemies, and any terrorist group, to turn kidnap and ransom into policy. There are measures we have not taken, but if the circumstances were to change, we will not hesitate to carry them out," Sharon said. "I would not advise anyone to test us," the Prime Minister added. The prime minister's warning was apparently directed to Hezbollah, the southern Lebanon terrorist organization with which Israel, with the help of German mediators, reached a prisoner swap deal that resulted in the return of the bodies of the three soldiers, and Elhanan Tennenbaum.

IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said that the army and the people of Israel will never forget the fallen soldiers.

"IDF soldiers and officers from the past and the present receive you today with a salute," Ya'alon said.

Reading out the personal details of the soldiers, including their military ID number, the chief of staff said that Israel embraces the families and the dead but looks towards the future.

"We are with you, all of the army and all of Israel," he said. Ya'alon vowed to continue seeking the whereabouts of Israel's other MIAs.

Elhanan Tannenbaum greeted by his family this evening at Ben Gurion Airport. Photo: Reuters

Kidnapped businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum did not take part in the ceremony. Following a brief reunification with his family, Tannenbaum was taken for a medical examination, followed by an appointment with Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet. In an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television aired Wednesday night, Tennenbaum said he went to Beirut to find information about missing navigator Ron Arad.

Head of the Red Cross team that oversaw the exchange, Franscois Belon, said that his organization will now try to find information regarding the fate of the missing Sultan Yakoub soldiers, missing IAF navigator Ron Arad and missing IDF soldier Guy Hever.
In Israel, 60 bodies of Lebanese combatants in 8 trucks crossed the border into Lebanon from Rosh Hanikra.

Forensic personnel first finished examining the bodies of the three abducted Israeli soldiers signaling the go-ahead for the completion of this first part of the prisoner swap.

"We are releasing another 400 Palestinians with a very heavy heart, because we know that these 400 will return very quickly to the cycle of violence," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said in Jerusalem.

At the Tarkumiya roadblock near Hebron 153 Palestinian prisoners who had been awaiting word from Germany since early Thursday morning were transferred from Israeli busses, inside which they had their handcuffs removed, to Palestinian busses, after being identified by Red Cross officials.

The prisoners emerged from Israeli busses showing the peace sign and praising Hizbullah leader Sheikh Nasrallah. They said that in the next deal all those serving life sentences will be released ,accused Israel of setting the region on fire and yelled out god is great.

Four buses took them from there to Hebron, and one bus to Bethlehem.

At Betunia, another 59 prisoners were released, at Tulkarm – 127, at Tsalem near Jenin – 37, and at the Erez roadblock – about 34, altogether 401 Palestinian prisoners are being currently released.

From 6 this morning nearly 400 Palestinian prisoners were taken by buses to military bases near the roadblocks where they waited until authorities gave the green light from Germany to release them after the identification process of the soldiers' bodies was finalized.

Meanwhile, an Iranian delegation - including envoys dispatched by President Mohammad Khatami and spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - arrived Wednesday in Beirut to assist in moving on to the second stage of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah: Ron Arad.

Negotiations on the second stage, slated to commence next week, will involve the transfer into Israeli hands information on the fate of Ron Arad.

Photo: Reuters

The mood in Israel this evening reflects anguish, in part because most Israelis considered the prisoner exchange lopsided.

As the three IDF soldiers are laid to rest tomorrow, the nation awaits it's Friday newspapers filled with the familiar front page death colors of red and black illustrating photos of those who perished in this mornings terror suicide bombing attack on bus 19 in Jerusalem.

ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY.