Hostage’s mother appeals to cleric

The mother of an Israeli soldier held by Hezbollah appealed for help
from the Lebanese militia’s spiritual mentor.Israeli and Lebanese
media revealed this week that Mikki Goldwasser, whose son Ehud was one
of two army reservists abducted by Hezbollah in a deadly July 12 border
raid that sparked last summer’s war, had written to Lebanon’s Sheik Mohammed Fadlallah via a U.N.
emissary.

Goldwasser asked Fadlallah, Hezbollah’s most senior cleric,
to provide her with a sign that her son and his comrade Eldad Regev are alive.

“I am sorry that there is
no peace between our two countries, which together would be capable of
lending strength to the Middle East, but I am only a mother,” Goldwasser
wrote in her letter, a copy of which was obtained by Yediot Achronot. “I
know for certain that my son Udi and his comrade Eldad were wounded
during the abduction. But I do not know the extent of their injuries. I
hope they merited receiving maximum treatment, as the Koran instructs that
captives should be nursed and attended to, but I would still like to see a
sign of life from them.”

According to the Lebanese newspaper A-Nahar,
Fadlallah said upon receiving the letter that he understood the humanitarian
concerns raised over the hostages, but that Hezbollah
was insisting that Israel first agree to release a large number of Arab
prisoners in exchange for the Israelis. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has
signaled that there are limits to the ransom Israel is willing to pay to
retrieve its men.