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Nov. 11, 2005
Emotional meeting, 30 years on
Jewish National Fund shaliach Yossi Darr recalls a commando raid
in Yom Kippur War.
PAT JOHNSON
An emotional reunion of sorts happened in Vancouver recently, when
a soldier who had been under siege in one of the most dramatic and
closely watched battles of the 1973 Yom Kippur War met the commando
leader who tried – but failed – to rescue him.
Yossi Darr, who is now the Vancouver shaliach (emissary)
for the Jewish National Fund, was a navy commando captain during
that conflict. On the first day of the war, the Israeli position
at Moutsav Hamezah, on the Israeli-controlled Sinai peninsula at
the entrance to the gulf, was surrounded by Egyptian forces. All
other Israeli positions in the peninsula fell in the coming days
and all Israeli eyes were on the fate of the 37 Israel Defence Forces
(IDF) soldiers and officers trapped in Moutsav Hamezah.
"It was like a symbol," Darr said. "Everyone knew
about Moutsav Hamezah."
Darr's team of commandos were given the order to rescue them.
"We got a specific, special order from the chief of staff himself,
David Elazar, who sent an officer to us and he said, 'Look, I have
a mission here under direct orders from the chief of staff [of the
IDF],' " Darr said.
Two days earlier, the Israeli air force had tried to open a breach
in the Egyptian lines to allow the soldiers to escape. But they
failed, and Darr's order was to try to release the soldiers by taking
inflatable dinghies up the coast, landing about a kilometre from
the outpost, swim in, make contact with the trapped soldiers, then
call the dinghies to quickly swoop in and carry the soldiers back
to safety.
Israeli intelligence said there were 600 Egyptian commandos encircling
the position.
"I was with only 30 men," said Darr.
The plan was to take all the soldiers back to Ras Soudar, the base
inside Israeli lines.
"We knew that if the headlines the next day were 'Navy commandos
have released the soldiers from Moutsav Hamezah,' it would give
an injection of adrenalin into the whole country," said Darr,
who had crossed the Gulf of Suez tens, maybe a hundred, times. But
he had never done so on a night when the sea was calm and the moon
full.
"With commandos, you should have a harsh sea, high waves. Rain
and dark – these are our best friends," he said. "The
sea was flat, calm, and the moon was almost full ... when I started
to move, I said, 'Elohim, God, I wish you would give me a
higher, more difficult sea than I have ever had.' But it seems it
was not His intention that night."
The Egyptian radar picked up the commandos in the calm sea.
"All of a sudden, the Egyptians opened fire," said Darr.
"At this moment, I was thinking of Eran and his friends. They
knew that we were coming. They were expecting us, they were waiting
for us. They were already five days suffering. The Egyptians were
trying to kill as many as they could. They were attacking, attacking."
The dinghies were being shot at. Some commandos were wounded and
some of the inflatable boats were penetrated. The order came to
abandon the operation.
"I was the most frustrated person in the world," said
Darr. "It is the first time I was not going to achieve the
mission that I was given."
In the coming days, the soldiers in Moutsav Hamezah were forced
to surrender, but refused to give up their position until the Red
Cross arrived, for fear they would be killed by the Egyptian forces.
The 32 soldiers and five officers marched out of the siege, carrying
the sefer Torah from the base's shul, immortalized in what has become
a famous wartime photograph. They spent two months in an Egyptian
prison, where they were tortured, before being traded in a prisoner
swap between Israel and Egypt.
For Darr, the disappointment and regret has lasted for decades.
"Have I done everything possible? Have I forgotten maybe something
that I could have done?" he asked himself.
Then, when a group of injured and disabled Israeli veterans visited
Vancouver in September, Darr was speaking with his friend Rabbi
Philip Bregman, who was helping organize the visitors, who are associated
with the organization Beit Halochem. Beit Halochem (House
of Warriors) is an agency that provides services, including recreation
and vacations, to injured and disabled Israeli veterans. As the
rabbi told Darr what he knew of the individual veterans, one of
their stories struck Darr as significant: Eran Jacoby's case piqued
Darr's interest.
"I said, 'Wait a minute, I would like to know where he was
located, what was his position?'" Darr said. "I said,
'I have to call the guy. I have to speak with him.' I was really
emotional. So he said, 'OK, let's call him now.'
"I asked Eran, 'Were you the one, or one of the people who
went out, surrendering to the Red Cross, carrying the Torah scroll?'"
Darr said. "He said, 'Yes, this is us.' Then I was really,
really moved, because it came as a flashback."
The two men had an emotional first meeting.
"My first sentence was, 'I'm sorry,' " Darr said. "Because
I still felt sorry that I couldn't make it.
"He hugged me and said, 'You shouldn't be sorry.' " he
said.
Jacoby told Darr that, in retrospect, he was glad the commandos
didn't make it because he feared a shootout that would have precluded
a Vancouver reunion more than three decades on.
Jacoby was one of eight veterans who visited Vancouver.
"This is part of our rehabilitation process," Jacoby said.
"This is the price that, unfortunately, some of the young people
in Israel have to pay. For us, people who were injured in the war
and had a second struggle for their life and their health, such
a week in a wonderful community like this, with all the warmth and
the love, it means everything. We go back with memories for life."
The memories of his time in an Egyptian prison are less pleasant.
"It was not a five-star hotel," he said. "It was
tough, it was very tough. But we're alive, that's the important
thing."
Paul Becker, a Vancouver architect and engineer who helped organize
the visit, said the trip was fun for the participants and the host
families, but also very moving, such as when the eight visited local
Jewish schools.
"It was an emotional day, because it was the first time that
they really mentioned what their own personal experiences had been
like and the kids were really open to that," Becker said. "It's
been a very rewarding experience. You make a very personal contact
with someone who is so deeply involved in what we read about every
day in Israel. It brings home how struggling that country is and
how fortunate we are here. We benefited as much, I think, from having
them here as they benefited from being here."
The veterans, who ranged from about 25 to 55, were all injured in
the line of duty. Some were injured during war and others during
the course of duty in peace time.
Bregman, the spiritual leader of Temple Sholom, along with Rabbi
Shachar Orenstein of Shaarey Tefilah, answered the call from the
Canadian branch of Beit Halochem. Both asked their congregations
for volunteers to host and assist the veterans.
"[We've done] a lot of different projects throughout the years,"
Bregman said. "This has been one of the most fantastic projects,
because we're dealing here with people in such a dynamic situation.
We trust, we pray, that our Israeli brothers had a wonderful time.
I know that, whatever joy they had, it was 10 times on the other
side – the hosts, the involvement. I had the easiest job of
all: I raised the money. Not one individual that I approached refused
me. When they heard about the organization, they literally threw
the money at me."
Yossi Blau, one of the veterans, said Canada is a new world to him.
In July 2001, he was in a tank that was attacked by a rocket.
"I lost one of my eyes and half of my brain, so it was a long
recuperation," he said. "Beit Halochem allowed me to do
all the stuff that I need to get back in shape, to stand on my leg
and do everything I can. I am here."
In Vancouver, he said, "Everybody's nice to you.... In Israel,
everybody's stressed. Over here, it's nice."
For Jacoby, Vancouver's reputation preceded the visit.
"Nobody ever said anything bad about Vancouver, which was very
suspicious to me from the very beginning," he smiled. "The
one thing that is bad about Vancouver is that it is so far away
from Israel."
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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