
IDF Chief Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Rabbi Avichai Ronski has been assigned the task of determining whether or not Sgt. Ehud Goldwasser and St.-Sgt. Eldad Regev, soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists in 2006, can be declared
Rabbi Ronski has already been provided with all available information regarding the kidnapped soldiers' condition.killed in action. The families of the missing soldiers may appeal to the High Court against the IDF decision to begin the process of making the determination.
In order to make the fateful determination, the IDF announced Monday, Rabbi Ronski has already been provided with all available information regarding the kidnapped soldiers' condition. The data at his disposal includes classified intelligence collected by the IDF Intelligence Branch and the state's intelligence services. As part of the process, the IDF Chief Rabbi will review the information and consult with other religious authorities to determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence to declare that Regev and Goldwasser can be presumed dead.
The status of the kidnapped soldiers has profound religious, legal and moral implications for their families and for the negotiation process under Jewish law; therefore, the presumption of life or death in the case of missing IDF personnel is placed in the hands of IDF Chief Rabbi as the highest relevant authority in religious law. The Chief Rabbi is generally given the task of determining the missing soldier's presumed status after intelligence services have reached a conclusion that the soldier is no longer among the living. Until a final rabbinical determination, however, Regev and Goldwasser currently have the status of soldiers missing in action.
The Head of the IDF's Human Resources Branch, Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Stern, informed the Goldwasser and Regev families of the decision to turn to the IDF chief rabbi for his ruling on whether the kidnapped soldiers are alive. Maj.-Gen. Stern promised to update the families on any new information or research, and to convey to them Rabbi Ronski's final decision before any public announcement is made.
Regev and Goldwasser were abducted by Hizbullah on July 12, 2006, in a cross-border raid from Lebanon. Eight soldiers were killed in the attack, which sparked the Second Lebanon War between the IDF and Hizbullah forces in Southern Lebanon.
'A Disgraceful Day for Israel'
The Goldwasser family may petition the High Court of Justice against the IDF's decision. "We did not have time to tell our family about the decision, and we already heard it on the radio. This does not seem to be a proper way of handling a matter such as this. We are considering petitioning the High Court," said Karnit Goldwasser, Ehud's wife. "Today is a disgraceful day for the State of Israel. For two years, I thought that [Hizbullah chief Hassan]
"No one prepared us that Ehud may not be alive." -- Miki GoldwasserNasrallah was the problem, now I find out that we are the problem. We squeeze the life out of ourselves."
"No one prepared us [for the possibility] that Ehud may not be alive," Miki Goldwasser, the soldier's mother, told Voice of Israel government radio. She said that her family was originally informed after the kidnapping that the soldiers were seriously wounded. "Now, after the negotiations to bring them back, the government wants to declare them dead and someone wants to break the deal," she said.
Last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli reporters that a deal with Hizbullah regarding the jihadist group's ransom demands in exchange for Regev and Goldwasser was around the corner. Earlier this month, various Arab media outlets reported that a deal between Israel and Hizbullah was almost concluded.