(no subject)
Sorry if this is long but I keep meaning to write about this. I guess this week is the time, between this day for remembering the far too very many dead and the day next week for remembering those dead in our wars after.
About 2 weeks ago several soldiers were killed in Gaza. They were killed in a friendly fire incident, when two different units basically responded to the same thing and one unit mistook the other for the terrorists.One of the men killed was Major Eliraz Peretz, 31, father of 4.
At the time the name didn't say anything special, it was just a sad and horrible thing. A week later I saw a post on a blog about the Peretz family and how Eliraz's older brother Uriel Peretz was killed in Lebanon. Then I looked at a picture of Eliraz, squinted at it and realized who he was, realized he was Uriel's little brother, the one who was a year behind us in school.
Uriel Peretz was one of my best friends in elementary school. His birthday was the day before mine and that coincidence threw us together. He was a great guy. He was only average height, thin and wiry but the force of his personality was tremendous and he could do anything. He was one of the only people to invite me to a party in elementary school and he actually got me to show up (both were quite astonishing, considering me then).
He went into the army as a cook because they wouldn't let him be in Sayeret Golani(the best unit in one of the best infantry brigades), he wasn't healthy enough. He trained, he asked and he worked until they let him try out for the unit and he got in. He became an officer and a good one. Then one day, on a patrol, they were ambushed and he and one of his soldiers were killed. They were hit by 5 IEDs and the rest of the soldiers said they only survived because of his leadership and training.
I missed his funeral because I was home with an injured ankle, but I watched it on TV and I remember seeing Eliraz, his little brother, in his Sayeret Golani uniform, weeping at Uriel's graveside. Now he's dead too. There are 3 more brothers, all also in Golani. Their mother says "God loves Sayeret Peretz". I don't know how she can stand it.
We have too many dead. They lie in the earth and perhaps in heaven, braver then lions, swifter then eagles and we are richer for having known them and poorer for missing them.
About 2 weeks ago several soldiers were killed in Gaza. They were killed in a friendly fire incident, when two different units basically responded to the same thing and one unit mistook the other for the terrorists.One of the men killed was Major Eliraz Peretz, 31, father of 4.
At the time the name didn't say anything special, it was just a sad and horrible thing. A week later I saw a post on a blog about the Peretz family and how Eliraz's older brother Uriel Peretz was killed in Lebanon. Then I looked at a picture of Eliraz, squinted at it and realized who he was, realized he was Uriel's little brother, the one who was a year behind us in school.
Uriel Peretz was one of my best friends in elementary school. His birthday was the day before mine and that coincidence threw us together. He was a great guy. He was only average height, thin and wiry but the force of his personality was tremendous and he could do anything. He was one of the only people to invite me to a party in elementary school and he actually got me to show up (both were quite astonishing, considering me then).
He went into the army as a cook because they wouldn't let him be in Sayeret Golani(the best unit in one of the best infantry brigades), he wasn't healthy enough. He trained, he asked and he worked until they let him try out for the unit and he got in. He became an officer and a good one. Then one day, on a patrol, they were ambushed and he and one of his soldiers were killed. They were hit by 5 IEDs and the rest of the soldiers said they only survived because of his leadership and training.
I missed his funeral because I was home with an injured ankle, but I watched it on TV and I remember seeing Eliraz, his little brother, in his Sayeret Golani uniform, weeping at Uriel's graveside. Now he's dead too. There are 3 more brothers, all also in Golani. Their mother says "God loves Sayeret Peretz". I don't know how she can stand it.
We have too many dead. They lie in the earth and perhaps in heaven, braver then lions, swifter then eagles and we are richer for having known them and poorer for missing them.