Kuttler - Thirty years later, missing IDF trio is all but forgotten

Hillel Kutler..
The Times of Israel..
14 June '12..




(JTA) — Soon after the Lebanon War began in June 1982, Avigdor Chen’s tank unit fell into a trap. Artillery rained from high ground occupied by the Syrians near the village of Sultan Yacoub. The battle continued all night.

When dawn broke, Chen saw a struck Israeli tank some 100 yards away. With smoke billowing from it, the tank rolled downhill. Chen ran toward the now-stopped tank. He smelled burning human flesh and looked inside. The commander, Zohar Lipschitz, was dead. Chen ventured no further into the tank, knowing that another shell could follow imminently.

Chen later learned that Yehuda Katz also had been inside the tank.

Katz, then 25; Zachary Baumel, 21, with whom Chen had been friends since basic training; and a third soldier, Zvi Feldman, 22, have been missing ever since that battle, which took place 30 years ago, on June 11. Not a single letter, photograph, video clip or third-party message from them has reached the outside world, nor has any proof emerged to indicate their deaths.

“I really feel strongly that there may be a chance that some of these guys are still alive and that there’s still hope,” Chen said. “People in Vietnam went missing for so many years and they turned up.”

But, he added, “They’re on the radar much less than they used to be. There’s not even a blurb about them.”

With Gilad Shalit’s October release from more than five years in Hamas captivity in Gaza, Israeli MIAs fell from public consciousness. Long before Shalit’s release, Baumel, Katz and Feldman were all but forgotten, unreported in negotiations over prisoner exchanges. No leftover, Shalit-era demonstrations are being recycled or protest tents filled to demand the trio’s freedom or proof of their fate.

Fischer - Yehuda, Tzvi, and Zachary: Missing for 30 years

Elli Fischer..
Times of Israel..
11 June '12..




Exactly 30 years ago, during the night between the 10th and 11th of June, 1982 (the 20th of Sivan – a date commemorating other historical Jewish tragedies), the IDF fought Syrian forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Considered one of Israel’s worst failures in the First Lebanon War, 30 Israeli soldiers were killed and another three went missing. Eyewitnesses testified that three Israeli soldiers were paraded through Damascus several days after the battle, but the trail begins to run cold after that, although there were indications in 1993, 2000, and possibly even 2005 that at least some of the missing Israeli soldiers were still alive. Perhaps, as the Syrian regime – long suspected of holding the soldiers – continues to crumble, we will finally get some definitive answers.

It has been 30 years, or 10,958 days, that their families – two of the three, Yehuda Katz and Tzvi Feldman, were/are children of Holocaust survivors – have been in the dark about the fate of their sons and brothers. Brooklyn-born Zachary Baumel’s father passed away in 2009, having dedicated the last 27 years of his life to bringing his son home by cultivating contacts in enemy states, suing governments, and organizing campaigns, but ultimately suffering immense frustration.

Baumol's mother seeking eyewitness testimony to her son's capture

Carl
Israel Matzav
20 December '10


31 years ago, Zechariah Baumel sat in the row in front of me in yeshiva. Two years later, in 1982, Baumel was sent to Lebanon by the IDF. He has not returned since. He and three of his comrades were captured by the Syrians in the largest tank battle in Israel's history, the battle of Sultan Yaqub. Last year, Baumel's father died without knowing his son's fate. Now, his mother has filed an action under the British Freedom of Information Act to gain access to a report by the British ambassador to Syria. It seems that the ambassador was present when Baumol was paraded through the streets of Damascus after his capture. Mrs. Baumel wants to see the report he filed regarding what he saw.

IDF soldiers Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Tzvi Feldman – all in their 20s at the time -- went missing near the Lebanese village of Sultan Yaqub in the final battle of the first Lebanon War on June 11, 1982.

All three are still listed as missing in action (MIA). However, it subsequently came to light that the British Ambassador to Syria at the time, Ivor Lucas, may have witnessed their capture by Syrian soldiers. Lucas, who filed a report to London on the day of the battle, may also have seen the Syrian troops parade their Israeli captives and their tank through the streets of Damascus.

Baumel’s mother has tried for two years to obtain the Lucas report, only to be stymied by the UK’s Foreign Office, which responded, “We are conscious that the release of sensitive information would cause harm to our relationship with Syria.”

(Read full "Baumol's mother seeking eyewitness testimony to her son's capture")

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