At present times, we cannot state with certainty wether deserted IDF soldier Abraham Kovalev is alive or not. He was last seen in Sidon, on October 15th 1990, by a Shin-Beth informer who positively identified our man despite the fact he was bearded and wearing traditional muslim clothing. The man was seen on his way back from a meeting with local Amal leaders, heading for the abandoned house - partly devastated by mortars - which he is occupying together with a significant number of war orphans of different confessions.

What precisely sergeant Kovalev’s is trying to achieve remains undetermined. Rumors are various and contradictory. Some say he wants to establish an orphanage in Beyrout, others say he seeks to reach Syria and request asylum, yet others say he wants to lay the foundations of a new syncretic religion.

"Charismatic", "different", "silent", "introspected" are the words that were heard most frequently during our interviews with superiors or comrades who had known sergeant Kovalev before his defection.

Modi’in officer Itzik Harosh was his direct superior in Marjayoun, South-Lebanon:

"Abraham was a paratrooper who never jumped off a plane, a washout: red beret but no wings pin. When he left his company he was assigned to the liaison unit and put under my command. He was doing what he was told. He learned arabic, took shifts in the communications room, assisted me in preparing and coordinating field data. He didn’t talk much. In his free time he was reading books. I didn’t know what they were about. They were in russian, you see."

Major sergeant Gili Ramon, a thermic radar operator, testifies:

"We were playing remote chess parties by radio, mostly at nighttime, during our respective shifts. Because I had to keep a permanent eye on the radar screen, he proposed we play by heart, without a board. He was an intriguing figure, very secret. On a bright night we climbed the roof of the munition hangar, and he pointed enthusiastically at dots in the sky, citing me their latin names. He told me we should come here again a week later to witness a Jovian eclipse. A Jovian eclipse, he told me, occurs when one of the Jupiter satellites passes into the shadow of its mother planet. I didn’t know any of this, and to tell the truth I didn’t see the point. But I was surprised that it was possible to witness such things with run-of-the mill army binoculars. He went on saying that timing the instant at which an occultation occurs - of which an eclipse is a special case - is one of the most accurate measurements amateur astronomers can make, and that many important discoveries - the rings of Uranus, the atmosphere around Pluto... - have been made by combining and plotting measurement results from different locations. He got me excited but on the said day he never showed up. He was already gone."