Sometimes it seems like we’re living in the age of miracles. Within the last month, all of the living hostages who were held in Gaza by Hamas were released.
And as of today, the remains of 24 of the 28 slain people that Hamas was hanging on to have also been returned home for proper burial and mourning by their families.
That includes the unbelievable development of the return, after 4,118 days, of the remains of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose name every Israeli recognizes. The news of his body crossing into Israel on Sunday felt like the homecoming of the nation’s son.
On August 1, 2014, the US and UN announced that a ceasefire had been reached between Israel and Hamas, which would have allowed the IDF to continue dismantling certain Hamas tunnels.
That morning, Goldin was operating with his unit in Rafah. While working to dismantle a tunnel, Hamas terrorists – in breach of the US- and UN-brokered ceasefire announced only hours earlier – emerged from the tunnel, shooting two soldiers and taking Goldin captive.
At first, all signs pointed to Hadar being alive. But within days, the IDF announced that he had been killed before he was seized.
The Military Rabbinate decided that the matter was clear enough to hold a funeral, and despite his remains being held in Gaza, partial remains were buried in a funeral attended by thousands of Israelis. There, he was eulogized by many, including his commander, his parents, Simcha and Leah, and his fiancée, Edna Sarusi, whom he had been set to marry only months after his murder.
Hadar became a symbol of both the sacrifice that Israelis have had to make time and time again to safeguard the country and of the incompleteness that the nation would carry with it until he was returned home.
Simcha and Leah Goldin became tireless advocates over the last decade in keeping Hadar’s fate in the public eye and speaking to anyone who might have been able to wield pressure on Hamas to release his body.
After IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir poignantly arrived at her Kfar Saba home, hugged Leah Goldin, and confirmed that the remains that had been retrieved were indeed of her son, Leah said: “We went around the world to do the impossible, to demonstrate that we have shared values, no matter the religion or race, that all have the responsibility to bring home a soldier’s body from the battlefield for proper burial.”
Goldin's return a testament to IDF's commitment to leave no one behind
The return of Goldin and the continuing return of all of the victims of Palestinian aggression against Israel, during the October 7 massacre and prior, are a testament to the long-held promise that the army gives to parents who send their children to battle: that they will not be left behind.
That promise has been strained, to be sure, as political considerations sometimes pushed it from being the main priority. Simcha Goldin thanked the IDF for bringing his son home, but “not anyone else” – an implied criticism of the government.
“We take these values, that one does not abandon soldiers on the battlefield, because it is a value, and we do not compromise on them,” he said. “We have been talking about IDF values for 11 years. That’s what Hadar left us: the value that we don’t leave soldiers in the field. We fight for fighters.”
In an interview on Channel 12 on Sunday, one of Hadar’s commanders said the one wish Hadar would have wanted to emerge from the long saga is for the people of Israel to be united. And the Goldins themselves said their son is a symbol of what can be done in Israel.
“It’s simple and doable; it’s Jewish and Israeli,” Simcha Goldin said. “We brought back the symbol, and now we have to protect it and fight for it.”
As Hadar is laid to rest on Tuesday – in a ceremony that is sure to be attended or watched by multitudes around the country – let’s hope that his legacy will be that wish of unity, and that the nation will honor his memory by focusing on what brings us together instead of what separates us.
What needs to be learned from the struggles to free the hostages, living and dead, is that despite divergent considerations and strategies to achieve the same goal, we’re all on the same side. On days like this, when one of our own comes home, that is more apparent than ever.