Israeli Mourns by Donating Brother's Eyes to an Arab

NAHARIYAH, Israel, Aug. 10, 2006 — -- In an odd twist on battlefield injuries, an Israeli victim of Middle East violence has helped an Arab regain his vision.

Last week a deadly Hezbollah attack in northern Israel left two Israeli brothers dead.

They were both husbands with children, and in the immediate aftermath, it was hard for those on the scene to think of anything beyond the horror.

But their surviving brother did, and he asked surgeons if his brother's eyes could be donated to help others in need of medical assistance.

There was a long list of patients in need, including an Arab, Nikola Elias, who was blind in one eye and had lost nearly all his vision in the other eye.

Dr. Uri Rehany, an eye surgeon, said he was told by Motti Tamam to "go ahead" and use his brother's eyes to help the Arab man, as it would be a mitzvah, meaning a good deed.

The surgery was performed in a Nahariyah hospital in northern Israel, where the eye ward took a direct hit from a katyusha rocket.

Doctors worked in the basement, and the next morning Elias was able to see out of his new eye.

"He could read numbers," Rehany said.

When he was told a Jewish man was the donor, Elias was confused, the doctor said.

"There is a war between Israelis and Arabs on the one hand, and he is getting the cornea of a Jewish man, who was killed by an Arab missile," Rehany said.

Now, one week later, Elias' right eye is recovering beautifully.

He'd been waiting to meet the Jewish man who allowed this to happen, and today we brought the two men together.

"I feel happy because something from [my] brother is here," Tamam said. "Look, now my brother can see."

They held hands, exchanged phone numbers, and gave each other hope after Elias received a precious gift, in a war zone.