Will the bereaved families now be able to start rebuilding their lives?

What will happen to Goldwassers, Regevs when cameras move on?

By RUTH EGLASH
karnit goldwasser 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
karnit goldwasser 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
What will happen to the Goldwasser and Regev families when the TV cameras are switched off and the media's attention turns to the next hot news item? "Every family has different needs," Batia Weinberg, Coordinator of the Northern Region for the terror victims support organization One Family Fund, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. "Some people need financial help; others will need psychological treatment or simply a support network to help them pull through." Until now, the families have been receiving assistance from the Israel Defense Force's specially trained Eitan Unit, which works specifically in cases where the fate of the soldier is unknown, an IDF spokesman confirmed. He said according to protocol, any emotional and psychological treatment for the relatives of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev would now pass to the Department for Bereaved Families within the army's infantry unit. "The treatment they receive will really depend on what the family needs or asks for," he said. "It is a very subjective thing." While representatives of the families refused to be interviewed for this article, Weinberg said that the One Family Fund was already gearing up to reach out to them and make sure that they received any additional assistance they might need. "I always try to put myself in the position of the relatives in an attempt to understand how they feel," said Weinberg, who attended each of the soldier's funerals. "These families have gone through complete hell for the past two years and only now they are really realizing what has happened to their sons. Any kind of help they got until now will need to be completely changed to suit the new situation. Now they understand what has happened and they can begin the grieving process." Weinberg - who has worked with numerous bereaved families, including that of Adi Avitan, who was kidnapped by Hizbullah in October 2000 - said that the return of the soldiers' bodies would hopefully "give the parents their lives back." "Once the 30 days [of mourning] is up and the cameras have moved on to different news then they [the families] will be able to begin rebuilding their lives," she said.