Family members of kidnapped soldier Ehud Goldwasser met with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Washington at the Senate on Wednesday.
Obama sympathized with the family and the struggle to release the two Israeli soldiers held captive by Hizballah, Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, as well as Gilad Shalit who was abducted by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The soldier’s family also met with congress members on Capitol Hill and with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Tuesday.
Knesset Speaker and acting President of the Israel, Dalia Itzik, also in the US, brought up the issue in her meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I told her that the release of the captive soldiers was the ethos of Israeli society,” Itzik said, “The return of Gilad Shalit is an essential condition to try to clear the air. Rice knows that Israel is willing to pay a heavy price in return for his release. I made it clear to her that we are pressed for time because we have had the bitter experience with what happened to Ron Arad.”