Gadi Goldwasser was gunning a motorcycle through a mountainous region of northern India that brings a new meaning to the word “remote.” The 23-year-old was living it up in the post-military adventure so many Israelis take after fulfilling their hitch. He was, in every way, on top of the world.
And then he got the email.
Goldwasser’s world was shattered that day in the makeshift Internet café when he discovered that his brother Ehud, 31, had been kidnapped by Hezbollah — a violation that precipitated the war in Lebanon.
“I remember I just held my head and everything was dark and I just fell down, spiritually. I was into depression, anger, confusion, frustration, anything that is bad,” Goldwasser told j. following a breakfast speech at the headquarters of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
“I saw two options. One is to keep falling, which is the easy option. But out of nowhere, something spiritually grabbed me and pulled me up, and I started to think to myself that I have a mission to do now. I have to go back home to my family and help and start to fight to get my brother and bring him back.”
After nearly five straight days of driving in the backs of trucks and jeeps, Goldwasser reached New Delhi. He then boarded a flight to Bangkok and another to Tel Aviv. Since receiving word about his brother he’d lost nine pounds and hardly slept a wink.
“Those were the worst days of my life. I don’t wish that on nobody, not even my biggest enemy,” he said with a distant look in his eye.
Goldwasser is a solidly built man with his hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, a Don Johnson beard and a pair of white-rimmed sunglasses perched on his forehead. He wears an outdoorsy shirt and pants and hiking boots, if ready to jump on a chopper and head through the backroads of India once again.
But he has a much more difficult road to travel than that.
His sojourn in San Francisco was part of a 25-hour whirlwind through the Bay Area on a hasty tour of America following his address to the U.N. General Assembly last month. “They are very sympathetic. They wish for the best, hope for the best. They said they’ll do the best they can. But the bottom line is, we are in the same spot,” he said tersely.
It’s been more than 80 days since his brother, a reservist, was abducted along with fellow soldier Eldad Regev. And though Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed at a Sept. 22 rally that both were alive, Goldwasser says the very least international forces can do is pressure Nasrallah to prove the Israelis are alive and well.
The 15 nations that signed the Security Council resolution calling for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah “are raising money for the reconstruction of Lebanon — and that’s blessed, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want destruction on the other side.” But it would also be humanitarian “to act for the life of my brother and Eldad. And they are not doing it.”
Goldwasser came to the Bay Area as a guest of Hillel’s Israel Coalition on Campus program and the Israel Center of the JCF, and also spoke in Sacramento, Oakland and Berkeley.
Goldwasser intends to make advocating for his brother a “full-time job” (and urges people to visit www.habanim.org for information and updates.).
“I think everyone can relate to my story,” he says. But “it could have been any other Israeli. More than that, it could have been any other civilian who lives in the free world. They already reached you with the World Trade Center. They reached Spain, they reached London. I don’t have to tell you this.”