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I found this story as I mentioned earlier. Perhaps more of Kofi's pals were at his lookout post?

‘Be with us and be with Israel’

Caption: JUF President Steven B. Nasatir launches the Blue Ribbon Campaign at a rally in Israel, Dec. 5, 2000.

By Steven B. Nasatir

Some phone calls are gut wrenching. The call I made to Haim Avraham on Wednesday, November 7 was one of the most difficult calls I’ve ever made.

I phoned just after news had arrived that Haim’s son Benny, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaid – three Israelis kidnapped by Hizbollah terrorists over a year ago – were presumed dead, according to new intelligence from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

When I made my calls, the Avraham and Avitan families had already begun to sit Shiva, the traditional Jewish period of mourning. The Sawaid family, who are Moslem, had yet to accept the IDF ruling because, according to Islamic law, a person cannot be pronounced dead without a body (or with the statements of two witnesses who have seen the body).

On October 7, 2000 Adi, Benny, and Omar were attacked and kidnapped on Israel’s side of the United Nations-certified border. The three young men (Adi and Benny were single; Omar was married and the father of two young children) were on a routine border patrol; they were not soldiers missing in action or captured while engaging an enemy.

In November 2000, the families were beside themselves with worry. There was no word from the kidnappers whether the boys were dead or alive, wounded or healthy. The parents came to Chicago and asked for our help.

It is not often that I feel helpless, but I felt that way that day listening to them. As a parent of five boys, I truly felt their pain.

Adding to the parents’ torment was the murky role of UNIFIL, the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Lebanon. From the beginning of the abduction, some evidence suggested that the Hizbollah abductors wore UN uniforms. There were rumors that UN forces somehow were involved. There even was a rumor that the UN possessed a videotape taken on the scene sometime after the bloody attack and abduction.

Early in its own investigation Israel asked the UN if there was a videotape. “No," Israeli officials were told. Over the weeks and months rumors about the tape persisted. Again Israeli officials enquired. The answer repeatedly was “no."

In fact that answer was a lie; a tape taken sometime after the attack did exist. It showed UN forces and unnamed others trying to move the vehicles that were involved in the attack. Although UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was presumably kept in the dark by members of his staff – he indeed apologized when the existence of the tape was verified -- the UN would only share the tape if they were allowed to blank out the faces of those in the film. They didn’t want to be “unfair" to any side of the conflict.

This abduction took place within Israel. It was a criminal act, not a conventional battle. But the UN – which said it didn’t want to “take sides" -- for months withheld information that may have been useful in investigating the attack.

Any wonder why Israel might object to international observers in the West Bank and Gaza, who might serve as a shield for Palestinian terrorists just as they had – inadvertently or otherwise – for Hizbollah?

The Blue Ribbon Campaign
That day in Chicago we promised the parents of Adi, Benny and Omar that we would do something, and a couple of days later we kicked off the Blue Ribbon Campaign. It quickly became a rallying symbol for the Jewish community in Chicago, and for communities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Former Soviet Union, and in Israel.

We distributed more than a million ribbons, held numerous press conferences and media interviews, conducted advocacy meetings with foreign diplomats and legislators in Washington, and organized letter-writing campaigns to the UN and to the American Red Cross. We did everything in our power to help obtain word, any word, to be communicated to the waiting families.

Thanks to our efforts Illinois Congressmen Jan Schakowsky and Mark Kirk drafted and passed a forceful resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives. Senator Peter Fitzgerald introduced similar legislation in the Senate. The U.S. State Department and some western European governments, motivated by common decency and humanitarian concerns, also championed this cause.

But Hizbollah has no decency. Its leaders could care less what the free world says, and shows no sign of humanity towards the boys they captured or the families left wondering, praying, and grieving.

Over the course of the past 400 or so days since the boys’ capture, I’ve maintained contact with Haim Avraham, I visited him in Israel, where we launched the Blue Ribbon Campaign there with a huge rally December 5, 2000. And I talk to him on the phone.

During that most recent – and most devastating – conversation, through our tears, Haim told me how important it is for the families to know they are not standing alone. He asked me to thank all those in Chicago who supported the Blue Ribbon Campaign, and to continue our efforts to bring his son and the other boys home.

As recently as two weeks ago, Hizbollah refused to reveal any information about the fate of the three.

Let the enemy announce they are alive, dead, half dead or half alive -- whatever it wants," said Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an interview with an Arab paper quoted in the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz.

As if any further proof were needed of the nature of terror, those words provide it. They stir us to action not only as Jews and as lovers of Israel, but as proud Americans at a time when our country is engaged in a war on terror.

A new symbol emerges
As Americans, the events of September 11 shocked and horrified us, and stirred our resolve to stand with all Americans to combat the evil that had attacked our country. As Jews deeply connected to Israel, the September 11 attacks confirmed what we had recognized for the past year – that Israel’s terrible conflict with Hizbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rejectionist states was an early scrimmage in a much larger confrontation aimed to bring down democracies and western values.

Throughout the past year, the blue ribbon served not only as a poignant reminder and focal point for efforts on behalf of Adi, Benny, and Omar. Through the lens of their plight, the ribbons also came to symbolize the solidarity we American Jews feel with the State of Israel and her people.

Now that we ourselves have been attacked, we feel a strong connection between our patriotism as Americans and our solidarity with Israel. For it is the same menace that threatens America, Israel, and the entire free world.

That connection calls for a new expression. Thus, in the wake of September 11, JUF is introducing a new symbol, a waving American flag coupled with an image of the blue ribbon, to show the Jewish community’s resolute stand against those who threaten America and to express continuing solidarity with the people and the State of Israel.

That new symbol will not stand in a vacuum, but rather will serve as a reminder of the whole range of efforts we, as an organized Jewish community, will undertake. Those efforts run the gamut, from fundraising – such as the Jewish Federation Terror Relief Fund, to which our community has contributed more than three quarters of a million dollars to assist those impacted by the September 11 attacks, and the JUF Israel Terror Relief Campaign, which will raise many millions for the victims of terror in Israel – to advocacy efforts, from missions to Israel to combating media bias.

As I contemplate the serious and difficult work ahead, I think of Haim Avraham’s closing words during my November 7 condolence call. They are, in fact, a rallying call that I would issue to every member of our Jewish community:

“Be with us and be with Israel."

Steven B. Nasatir is President of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.