The Murderous Yellow Wind

Shabbat/Saturday was a particularly bloody day in the annals of Israeli military history when twenty four young men lost their lives. An extremely sad day for the Jewish people.

Each of these souls’ deaths is a tragedy in itself, but one struck me as being particularly devastating.

Staff Sgt. Uri Grossman, 20 was the son of famed novelist and peace activist David Grossman (author of The Yellow Wind, 1988). He was killed on active duty in Lebanon when his tank was hit by a missile. He was a member of a unit who took part in Israel's final push deep into Lebanon, which was aimed at maximizing Israeli gains against Hezbollah guerrillas before a UN-ordered ceasefire came into force (at 5 am this morning) .

This came a day after his father publicly stated that he “could no longer support Israel's battle in Lebanon after the government there offered to send troops to patrol the border to prevent future attacks on Israel”.

David Grossman has gained a great deal of respect amongst many people for the quality of his writing as well as leftish political views. I can’t say that I am one of his fans, but today, my heart is right there with his. We may have a different attitude on the way to proceed vis-à-vis the Palestinians, but at the end of the day, we are both members of the same tribe and we both, in different ways, care deeply about the State of Israel.

I am sure that I won’t be the only person to find the killing of this peace activist’s son, ironic but more important, extraordinarily poignant