Assaf Ramon

Nothing of note happened last night, and today was average--I got let out of volunteering a bit early, had lunch, and cleaned the apartment for a mifgash dira (apartment meeting) before leaving for the thing I actually want to talk about:

We had an Israel Update with a man named Michael Freed, a Brit.  He asked us to name the most important things happening to Israel right now, so naturally we named Ahmedinijad, Iran in general, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  He then pointed out to us the increased level of violence in Israel (there have been 11 murders in the past month, which is good for a state in America, but bad compared to Israel's standards) and the slowly diminishing supply of water.  It was interesting to note that, because of the amount of external threats Israel deals with, it's hard for it to focus well and try to fix its internal problems.  Michael  noted that the majority of Israelis vote not based on domestic policy, but based on foreign policy and resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  The most interesting thing we discussed, however, was the death of Assaf Ramon last week.

Assaf Ramon was the son of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut (who died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003).  Ilan was considered a national hero as he took off to be the first Israeli in space, and there was a significant amount of mourning here after he died.  In Israel, if a member of your family has died in the army or in service to the country, your mother has to sign off on a paper that allows you to go to the army.  The mother also has to sign this paper for an only child.  Assaf was a pilot (pilots are revered as the elite of the elite in the Israeli army, to be in the Israeli air force is considered a great honor).  Pilots' names are not allowed to be released to the public unless something happens to them--they are, to say the least, one of Israel's most prized possessions.  Last week, Assaf died in a plane crash on a routine flight.  He was in the top of his flight class and had received his wings from Israeli president Shimon Peres only two weeks prior.  Apparently, Assaf took too many G's by accident and passed out, crashing over Hebron in the West Bank.  It's important to ask ourselves what kind of a society we live in where mothers have to sign their names and make a decision about whether or not to send their children (who've had relatives killed) to the army.

In any case, the Israel update was exceptional.  "Yotzeh min ha'klal," out of the ordinary.  After that, I went to Ulpan class (which Nathan has now switched into! :)).  Then we went to the Super Douche to buy some groceries for a huge camping trip we're going on near the Kinneret--but I'm sure I'll write about that when we get back.  We leave tomorrow morning.

Tonight, I'm just going to hang out with Nathan and see where the night takes us.  Have a good one, chaverim!