‘I Am Just a Wife’

We were relieved when we found out he wasn’t dead. We started to hug each other, happy to find out that he was just kidnapped. But the next day was very difficult, trying to understand what we’re going to have to do, how our life is going to be.

What did you do after you found out that your husband was kidnapped?

The first phone call I made was to the Regev family, to tell them that we are one big family now, and that we are going to bring them back. And the second was to the Shalit family, and I said the same thing to them. The next step was to learn the material. There isn’t any school to teach you how to react when your husband gets kidnapped. Not just learning how Hizbullah works and who is who in Lebanon, but rather things that I need to do, how my life is going to be, these kinds of things.

Do you feel betrayed that Israel stopped the war without achieving its original goal of securing your husband’s release?

One of the goals was to bring my husband back. But the other reason was to bring peace to the north of Israel—because when they kidnapped my husband, they also started shelling Israel with Katyusha rockets. The fact is that if there is a goal to the war and you don’t reach the goal, you don’t stop fighting. For me, the war hasn’t stopped. I don’t feel betrayed. The war took a lot of casualties, in Israel and in Lebanon. We live in northern Israel, so while we’re asking for the government to bring our precious things back home, at the same time, we’re trying to survive the rockets. During the war, we were seven miles from the border, with Katyusha rockets flying over our heads. When the war finished, I could finally put my whole energy into getting him back.

What do you think about Kofi Annan’s announcement last week that he will help mediate a possible prisoner exchange?