This entry should be dated yesterday, when I woke up and went outside to go exercise and found that every car in the parking lot had a balloon tied to the mirror! What's this, a holiday? I asked myself, but it wasn't -- an ad from Mitsubishi, I suppose encouraging you to buy a car. Later in the day another parking lot was full of balloons when I came out from shopping.


However, today was not a holiday at all. As you have probably read, Israel traded five Hezbollah prisoners (among them Samir Kuntar, who committed an exceptionally cruel murder of a family 16 years ago) for the bodies of two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. These soldiers were killed in an attack along the Lebanon border two years ago, and that event was the occasion for the second Lebanon war. Yesterday the bodies were returned to Israel. The event was broadcast on the radio and television all day, the agony of the families, the tears, the solemnity of the occasion. In contrast, Kuntar enjoyed a hero's return in Beirut and pictures of that occasion were also broadcast -- it looked like 10,000 people were celebrating in the streets of Beirut. Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, twisted the knife until the last minute, suggesting that one of the captured soldiers might still be alive. Apparently they have known for several weeks that neither of them were alive, and the examination by the Red Cross and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) doctor found that they had surely been killed in the original attack and were not kidnapped at all. The contrast of what was happening here and what was happening in Beirut was stark. Today there were funerals for both of them, both funerals broadcast over television. Goldwasser's young widow spoke as did his mother. At Regev's military religious funeral his father and brother both spoke.

Israel has a strong ethic to bring captured soldiers home and to retrieve the bodies of soldiers who were killed in war. The events of yesterday and today represent another strong ethic: these soldiers were the sons of Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel), not just the sons of their parents and families. All the nation grieved. Israelis will tell you over and over again that this is a hard country, and it is, for many, many reasons.

One soldier is still in captivity. Gilad Shalit was captured in Gaza by Hamas over two years ago, a month before Goldwasser and Regev were ostensibly kidnapped by Hezbollah. It is pretty clear that he is alive and there have been negotiations all summer towards his release. Hamas wants the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners (in prison for terrorism) in exchange for Shalit. Understandably the government is reluctant to meet these demands, but at the same time they want Shalit very badly. It's a complex situation, made more complex by the recent indictments of our prime minister, Ehud Olmert, for accepting bribes and other criminal involvements. In the meantime an uneasy cease-fire exists with Hamas so that the shelling of towns and settlements bordering on Gaza has stopped.

Gilad Shalit is another ben ha'am, son of the nation. The nation anxiously prays for his return.

Pat