Last update - 00:00 02/07/2007
At war memorial, Itzik calls for a sign of life from abducted troops
By Amiram Barket and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service
Acting President Dalia Itzik called Monday, at the official state ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, for Hezbollah to transfer a sign of life from the two kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Speaking at Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl National Cemetery, Itzik invited Hezbollah to begin negotiations with Israel for the release of the two soldiers in a 'fair exchange'.
Regev and Goldwasser were abducted by Hezbollah militants on July 12th of last year, sparking the war.
Monday marks the first anniversary, according to the Hebrew calendar, of the onset of last summer's Second Lebanon War. Memorial ceremonies commemorating the war's fallen soldiers were held in Israel's north and in Jerusalem.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at the ceremony that Israel must restore its deterrence while keeping its hand outstretched for peace.
"The Second Lebanon War was first war since the War of Independence in which the home front was the battle front," said the defense minister.
Barak also questioned whether the political leadership had done enough to prevent the outbreak of the war, as well as whether the IDF top brass had done enough to adequately prepare the army.
IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi also spoke at the memorial.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not attend, due to what sources in his bureau said were the extensive security precautions that would have needed to be taken had he attended. They said that, in the past, the security detail required by a prime minister's presence has left no space for the bereaved families.
The sources also said that the prime minister tends only to attend ceremonies on Israel's Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers, and sends deputies to attend other memorial ceremonies during the year.
"I think he can't look us in the eyes," Mirta Sheinbroom, mother of Yaniv, who died hours before the war came to an end, told Army Radio.
"That's Olmert's problem, and not security issues. In his speech over Passover, he said 'Go to the north, the war is a distant memory.' He's the one who send my son to war, not me and not 119 other families."
Amir Peretz, who served as defense minister during the war, attended the ceremony despite the fact that he was not invited.
Monday's events began with a ceremony in Kfar Giladi, where 12 reservist soldiers were killed by a Katyusha strike on August 6. Several family members of the soldiers spoke at the ceremony, where they lashed out at Olmert for failing to attend any of the memorial ceremonies taking place on Monday.
After the ceremony at Kfar Giladi, the bereaved families set out in an organized procession, which stopped at "point 105" on the Israel-Lebanon border. Another ceremony was held on this spot, in memory of the eight soldiers killed when Hezbollah militants abducted Regev and Goldwasser.
Elifaz Balua spoke at point 105 of his son Nadav, a member of the elite Egoz reconnaissance unit, who was killed on July 20 in Maroun a-Ras.
At 1:30 P.M., the procession arrived at the railroad depot workshop in Haifa, where eight railroad workers were killed by a Katyusha strike on July 16.
The procession concluded at the state memorial ceremony at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. The ceremony organizers from the Defense Ministry intended initially to honor only the 119 soldiers that fell in the war, but due to public pressure, the 44 civilians that were killed will also be included.