IDF soldier Guy Chever was 20-year-old when he disappeared on his way home from his Golan Heights base on August 17, 1997. Today, Wednesday, his mother Rina explained the family really hasn’t a clue as to his whereabouts, pained at the inaction of the governments and IDF, insisting more could and should have been done to locate her son.
 
The family has maintained that he is being held in Syria, but to date, Israel does not appear to have moved ahead on this track.

It is now being reported however that Israeli diplomatic officials have been calling on Syria to provide information on the missing soldier, using Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as a go-between.

According to Mrs. Chever, in an interview with Haaretz, she met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a month ago. She states the prime minister promises to work to locate Guy, explaining he plans to appoint a special envoy to focus on the matter. Mrs. Chever also met with senior Foreign Ministry official Yossi Gal, who has not been cooperative in the past, with the soldier’s mother reporting she did receive limited cooperation in the meeting.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has also been working with Russian diplomats to assist in obtaining credible current information on the missing soldier. It appears that this is the first time since his disappearance that senior governmental channels have been instructed to begin working to obtain information on the soldier.

In 2005, an unknown Syrian-based organization calling itself the Resistance Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights released a message that it is holding Chever. Israeli officials investigated but nothing concrete seems to have emerged.

In 2008, former US President Jimmy Carter passed a photo of Chever to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asking for assistance, the Russians have apparently contacted Assad today as well. According to reports, the Syria leader has yet to respond to the latest request or the previous request from the former American president in 2008.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)