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On October 7, 2000 Adi, Benny, and Omar were attacked and kidnapped on Israel’s side of the United Nations-certified border. The three young men (Adi and Benny were single; Omar was married and the father of two young children) were on a routine border patrol; they were not soldiers missing in action or captured while engaging an enemy.

In November 2000, the families were beside themselves with worry. There was no word from the kidnappers whether the boys were dead or alive, wounded or healthy. The parents came to Chicago and asked for our help.

It is not often that I feel helpless, but I felt that way that day listening to them. As a parent of five boys, I truly felt their pain.

Adding to the parents’ torment was the murky role of UNIFIL, the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Lebanon. From the beginning of the abduction, some evidence suggested that the Hizbollah abductors wore UN uniforms. There were rumors that UN forces somehow were involved. There even was a rumor that the UN possessed a videotape taken on the scene sometime after the bloody attack and abduction.

Early in its own investigation Israel asked the UN if there was a videotape. “No," Israeli officials were told. Over the weeks and months rumors about the tape persisted. Again Israeli officials enquired. The answer repeatedly was “no."

In fact that answer was a lie; a tape taken sometime after the attack did exist. It showed UN forces and unnamed others trying to move the vehicles that were involved in the attack. Although UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was presumably kept in the dark by members of his staff – he indeed apologized when the existence of the tape was verified -- the UN would only share the tape if they were allowed to blank out the faces of those in the film. They didn’t want to be “unfair" to any side of the conflict.

This abduction took place within Israel. It was a criminal act, not a conventional battle. But the UN – which said it didn’t want to “take sides" -- for months withheld information that may have been useful in investigating the attack.

Any wonder why Israel might object to international observers in the West Bank and Gaza, who might serve as a shield for Palestinian terrorists just as they had – inadvertently or otherwise – for Hizbollah?