One Year Since You Been Gone

Hi Gilad,
I don't know you, and you don't know me, but I feel compeled to write a letter to you. It's been a year since you were stolen away; stolen away from your family, stolen away from you friends, stolen away from your country. It's been a year since you were kidnapped by a bunch of barbaric savages who would rather kill than create. We don't know if you're still alive. If you're alive, we don't know what they're doing to you or how you're being treated. My god, you must feel so alone. I imagine you probably feel abandoned by the very government that you swore to protect the day your first put on your uniform. Of course, you're not alone. Your family is with you. Your friends are with you. Your country is with you even if you might feel that your leaders have abandoned you.

I can't help but feel angry at the situation. I'm sure if you were asked your opinion, you would say that you would rather rot than have your government release hundreds or thousands of blood thirsty "prisoners" to get you out of your situation. You would know that all of your comrades would be in danger to be kidnapped if these barbarians knew that their crimes paid dividends. You would know that your whole country would be in danger from violent people being freed to commit their crimes once more.

Yet, there you sit, in the middle of a civil war, hearing the gun fights and bloodshed unfold all around you, and you have been essentially left behind. Sitting in power is a weasely snake of a man that tries to crawl his way out of trouble and be invisible just so he can hold on to a brown leather chair with his name on it. He won't send any troops in after you because he's afraid another commission will convene to try and kick him out of his chair. So, instead, he does nothing. He hems and haws with your life, throwing a bone here and there about a prisoner exchange but never says the words, "We will go in and do everything in our power to find you and get you back. We will not negotiate with terrorists. WE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU BEHIND!" No, because that would take action and resolve and courage. This administration has none of those things.

Unfortunately, you have to bear the brunt and worse extreme of that cowardice and spinelessness. I have wept for you. I have spent nights wondering what you're doing or thinking right now. I have spent time even kicking and screaming at my helplessness. I have never lost hope, though. I am a big believer that we put out the energy of our feelings. I would never want my negativity to touch you. But, I feel helpless. I can do nothing to help you. All I can do is continue to spread the message to the world that you are still missing. You have been gone for a year, and we cannot MUST NOT forget you.

I continue to pray that you are still alive, that you are not being harmed in any way, that you are holding on to the hope that your people have not forgotten you. We have not forgotten you. May you be be returned home. May the people responsible for this atrocity be condemned to the Divine punishment that is deemed appropriate by the Almighty.

Sincerely,
A member of Klal Yisroel