Linking the past to the future at Yom Hazikaron

WHILE honouring the memory of Israel’S soldiers and civilians killed in past wars and terror attacks, it was the current threats Israel faces from Iran and Gaza that loomed large in remarks by Israeli and community officials at Victoria’s official Yom Hazikaron observance this week.

Sunday evening’s ceremony — which was hosted at Monash University’s Clayton campus by the Zionist Council of Victoria (ZCV) and numerous cosponsors — included the lighting of memorial candles by friends and family of fallen soldiers, together with a sampling of stories and anecdotes.

Attended by hundreds of community members, keynote speeches were delivered in Hebrew by ZCV president Dr Danny Lamm and Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem, who both included references to recent headlines affecting the future of Israel’s security.

Citing the example of Major Eliraz Peretz, who fell in a recent ambush along Israel’s border with Gaza and became the second member of his immediate family to die in battle, Dr Lamm alluded to the continued danger the IDF faces from Gaza. He also linked the Peretz family’s sacrifice to those of all fallen IDF soldiers.

“Were [Peretz’s] parents to ask their sons, our heroes, even today, ‘would you risk your lives again?’ they would respond ‘without a doubt, when called to this flag, we will always be ready’.”

Meanwhile, Ambassador Rotem used the story of the late Israeli astronaut and Iraq nuclear reactor attack veteran Ilan Ramon — whose son Asaf died in the past year in an Israel Air Force (IAF) training accident — as a segue into hinting at a future IAF attack on Iran.

Mentioning the 1980 Iraq mission, Rotem said that today’s pilots were preparing for a possible attack that “would take them even farther”.

Rotem concluded his remarks with the Hebrew prayer Sim Shalom: “May He who makes peace in His high places make peace for us, and for all Israel”.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, Israeli pilot Asaf Ramon was among those remembered at a community Yom Hazikaron ceremony in Woollahra on Monday night.

More than 400 people attended the commemoration, which honoured the memories of Israeli soldiers who have been killed since Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.

Netzer’s Jonathan Baker recalled his meeting with Ramon, who died when his fighter jet crashed in Israel in September last year during a training accident.

“I spoke about how I met Asaf when I was with a group of Australians and South Africans in Israel last year,” Baker told The AJN after the event. “When we met, we compared cultures and spoke about his difficult duty and why he had to be in the air force.

“It’s important to come out of this event and reflect on what happened. But we need to also understand and learn from his death and it should not weigh us down because that isn’t what the soldiers deserve.”

AHRON SHAPIRO AND JOSHUA LEVI