Last update - 00:00 01/09/2007
Mother of abducted IDF soldier: Gov't is neglecting Sderot security
By Jack Khourie, Haaretz Correspondent
The mother of an Israel Defense Forces soldier kidnapped by Hezbollah rebuked on Saturday the government's public spending policy on defense.
Speaking at an event aimed at raising awareness to the return of Israel's abducted troops, Miki Goldwasser, the mother of IDF reserves Master Sergeant Ehud Goldwasser, urged her audience to apply more pressure on the government not to neglect the safety of Sderot residents.
"Woe upon us that we should entrust our fates in the hands of people who do as they please," Goldwasser said. "They build atomic bomb bunkers on the public's expense but they haven't got the money to reinforce Sderot [buildings against Qassams], nor did they have the money to put cameras on the border with Lebanon."
The soldier's mother also mentioned IAF navigator Ron Arad, who has been missing since the 1980s.
"Twenty years have passed since Ron Arad's plane went down. We've elected ten governments since. All have promised to bring Ron home and all have failed," she said. "Ron has turned into a national symbol, a symbol of lasting and burning failure."
"We now have three boys who are alive, whose location and captors are known clearly," she continued. "The country has failed twice: By allowing their abduction and the even more hurtful failure to secure their return a year and two months since their capture."