‘I Am Just a Wife’

[Annan] chose the families of the kidnapped soldiers to be the first ones that he met with. To me, this sends the message that he thinks it’s important. Most of the meeting the families did the talking, but at the end, he said that he will personally work for their release, that it will be taken care of. He said the same thing in Lebanon, which must mean that he really wants them to be back.

How did you wind up coming to America?

I didn’t plan it. I couldn’t plan more than one or two days ahead. My goal since the kidnapping has been to keep this issue on the agenda, to meet with as many people as I can. When I meet with people, I just ask them to help me, I don’t specify how. When [Los Angeles philanthropist] Marvin Markowitz came to visit me in Israel, he offered to bring me to Los Angeles and help me. And now I will be traveling to Chicago, Washington, New York, Houston, Miami, but I have no plan. I’m just going to keep asking people for help. I’m sure that someone here knows someone who knows someone who can speak to Hizbullah and ask them to send us a sign of life. I hope to be in New York in October for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. I just know that I should be there, to help in any way to raise awareness among world leaders, to remind them about Udi.

What is the Israeli government doing to retrieve your husband and the other kidnapped soldier?

I don’t know exactly what they are doing. I know they are doing everything in their power to get them back, but there are lots of other things they are dealing with, so I can’t just sit back and leave everything to them.

Have you made any attempts to communicate with your husband?