Israel novelist (and peace activist) Grossman's son is killed

[PA Democrat]

JERUSALEM - JERUSALEM (AP) — The son of Israeli novelist and peace activist David Grossman has been killed in southern Lebanon, the army said Sunday, just days after the author urged the government to end the war with Hezbollah guerrillas.

Staff Sgt. Uri Grossman who served in an armored unit, was killed Saturday when an anti-tank missile hit his tank, according to the military. He was 20.

The unit was participating in Israel's final push deep into Lebanon aimed at maximizing Israeli gains against Hezbollah guerrillas before a U.N.-ordered cease-fire was to take effect.

Tearful friends and relatives gathered Sunday morning at the Grossman home in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Tzion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_novelist_s_son

[ikojo]

1. Sad. I just found out that the son of one a

former co-worker has enlisted into the Israeli army. He is VERY orthodox and lives in Jerusalem. I don't know if he's done with his training yet.

[shain from kane]

2. How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?n/t

[theanarch]

3. no one is ever "asked"...

...they are ordered.

[bahrbearian]

4. 1st you tell him Lies

[PA Democrat]

5. It's a famous John Kerry quote

in case anyone doesn't know.

Kerry testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971 on behalf of Vietnam Vets against the War

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/VVAW_Kerry_Senate.html

[shain from kane]

7. Another war. CNN currently showing a Countdown to Cease Fire. n/t

[shain from kane]

8. Here's another quote. Do you know its source?

"He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come."

[PA Democrat]

10. I had a hunch. Checked to make sure

All Quiet on the Western Front

[classof56]

12. Thanks, PA Dem--good to know I guessed correctly.

Been a long time since I read Remarque's book--still makes me sad to think of it.

Tired Old Cynic

[shain from kane]

14. Final lines. Couldn't use the final two paragraphs, because it would have

been too easy.

"He fell in October, 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front."


In the movie, Paul is killed by a sniper as he reaches out to touch a butterfly.

The actor, Lew Ayres, was a conscientious objector in his real life.

Added from the IMDB.com ---

"...he was a conscientous objector. America was outraged, and theaters vowed never to show his films again, but quietly he achieved the Medical Corps status he had requested, serving as a medic under fire in the South Pacific and as a chaplain's aid in New Guinea and the Phillipines."

Blessed are the peacemakers.

[classof56]

11. I don't know but would like to.

I almost want to say it's from "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque, but maybe it's from one of David Grossman's books?

[whalerider55]

6. sad

sad. i've got five second cousins serving at the front in this war.
it used to be that the men who sent kids off to war at least understood from their own personal experience the hell it really is, and exercised some sanity not any more.

killing for peace. i can understand dying for it, but killing for it, especially when the strategy will radicalize yet another generation of haters, eludes me.

whalerider55

[cali]

9. How sad.

He's a brilliant, thoughtful man. Here's a transcript from an interview he did with Bill Moyers on Now, four years ago.

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_grossman.html

[PA Democrat]

13. Thank you for the link. That was a very moving interview.

[PA Democrat]

15. "We have only the emotional dictionary of hatred."

Quote from the interview:

GROSSMAN: First...the first thing that we should do when we have this peace treaty between us and the Palestinians is to change the study programs, is to change the textbooks, is to teach both peoples from childhood to live in life of...to live life of mutuality, of respecting the other. It is very difficult. It will be like teaching them a totally new language, because you see, we were born to these wars, to this violence. It is engraved in our genes. We forgot totally this language. We have only the emotional dictionary of hatred. And this must be changed, and therefore I do not believe that we shall see a real internalized change in the nearest future. It will take many generations to start to purify us on this poison of 100 years of killing each other.

[Karenina]

17. Truer words were never spoken...

My heart goes out to the Grossman family in this time of grief.

[Scurrilous]

16. Seven soldiers killed in fighting on Sunday, eve of UN cease-fire

<snip>

"Seven Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in south Lebanon on Sunday, as troops and Hezbollah guerillas engaged in heavy fighting, hours before a United Nations cease-fire resolution was expected to go into effect.

Sunday's fatalities raise the number of Israelis killed in the war to 154, 115 of them soldiers and 39 of them civilians."

<snip>

"Twenty-four IDF soldiers were killed and another 11 seriously wounded during fighting in south Lebanon on Saturday, the heaviest one-day Israeli casualty toll of the war."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750327.html

[Kailassa]

18. Tears in my heart, as I mourn for Uri Grossman.

And then I remember the tens of thousands who have died in our wars in the last few years.
There are now millions and millions of people grieving because their loved ones have been
killed, injured, or forever changed by these wars.

The "deciders" of this world have decided to remodel humanity.

Their latest model is a pusillanimous bully, cowering from fear and distrust, yet always
ready to murder and torture. Terror of "the other" leads us to desperate eagerness to
kill and humiliate others before they can hurt us. As we can safely curl up in front of
our TVs the poor and illegal are pushed into doing our dirty work for us. We gasp in
self-righteous horror when our paid killers "go too far", but quickly refocus on the
reported fiendish schemes of our supposedly stupid "enemies".

There is no way to visualize so many dead;
much less the millions of broken people and mourners.

And every one is a tragedy as horrible as the death of this cherished child of a peacemaker.

Tears in my heart, but they will soon dry.
Their families will carry this burden of anguish forever.

[eccles12]

19. It is more important than ever to do US and Israel a huge favor by

ridding the US government and the Israeli government of the neocon cabal. Even if it might mean voting against some of your most favored Dems, the neocon enablers must be replaced first within the Congress and then within the overall government. They hold high ranking political appointments in this administration and some have even been able to secure career appointment within the Federal governmnent over the years. But the main stronghold is within the Congress that votes on our laws, our budgets, and our foreign aid. It is a MUST for the survival of the America that we once were told stood for decency, humanity, equality, and justice. The American ideal will not survive in it's presnt state.