Widow of abducted Israeli soldier starts television career

Oct 7, 2008, 12:19 GMT

Jerusalem - Karnit Goldwasser, the widow of an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and who rose to prominence leading a global compaign for his release, is starting a television career, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

Goldwasser, 32, is to host a show dealing with environmental issues on Israel's Educational Channel.

Until last July, Goldwasser had been campaigning for the release of her husband for two years, travelling the globe and meeting with world leaders.

Her husband Ehud was abducted along with a second Israeli soldier in a July 2006 cross-border raid by Hezbollah, which sparked a month-long war between Israel and the Islamist movement. The couple had been married for several months prior to his capture.

Goldwasser's struggle for her husband's release came to an end when Hezbollah returned his body and that of the second soldier, Eldad Regev, to Israel in coffins in a July 16 prisoner swap.

But her handling of the struggle had aroused widespread sympathy and respect among supporters in Israel and abroad.

Israelis were especially impressed when she managed to surprise Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a September 2007 news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

'My name is Karnit and I am the wife of Goldwasser that was kidnapped by Hezbollah to Lebanon more than a year (ago) and you are responsible for this by your support,' Goldwasser, who had entered the room pretending to be a journalist, told a flustered-looking Ahmadinejad in front of television cameras.

'I'm asking how come you are not allowing the Red Cross to go and visit him. How come you are not sending us a sign of life (for) more than a year,' she asked the Iranian leader, who declined to reply.

Israel accuses Iran of actively supporting Hezbollah, a Shiite movement.

Commenting on her upcoming television show, Goldwasser, who has a degree in civil and environmental engineering from Israel's renowned Technion Institute of Technology, told the Israeli daily Ma'ariv that after the support she had received from the Israeli public, she was 'happy to try and contribute' to an 'important' issue such as the environment.