IN MEMORIAM STAFF SGT. URI GROSSMAN.

On Saturday August 12, Staff Sergeant Uri Grossman, a tank commander in an IDF armoured unit operating in southern Lebanon, was killed in action in the village of Khirbet Kasif when his vehicle was hit by a Hizballah antitank missile. In the same incident, two soldiers and an officer died. The four of them were among the 24 IDF fatalities on that day, a reminder of the ferocity of the fighting when Israel tried to make as much gains on the ground as possible in anticipation of the August 14 ceasefire. Born on August 27, 1985, and a student at Jerusalem's Experimental School, Grossman would have celebrated his 21st birthday in two weeks. He would have been released from the army in November. May he rest in peace.



Sgt. Grossman is the son of leftwing writer and peace activist David Grossman, who, together with two other leftwing novelists, Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, called for a halt in Israeli military operations in Lebanon just days before the death of his son. Grossman senior has made a career out of undermining the fighting spirit of the Israeli people through his engagement with "peace" groups and publishing such books as Death as a way of life (2003). In Israel, he has fulfilled very much the same role as West European pacifist politicians in the interbellum, who starved their military to such an extent that in 1940 they were steamrollered in six weeks by the Nazis, who had happily rearmed. Similiarly, people like Grossman sr. over the past years instilled in the Israeli people a false sense of security and persuaded them to let their guard down. Meanwhile, Hizballah stocked 20,000 missiles just across the border.

The thirties' pacifist slogan was "No More War". Fair enough, but such a concept makes only sense if both parties have a mutual interest in it. While Grossman sr. undoubtedly thinks high of his own intellect, he was and is too stupid to understand this. Just like Chamberlain did not see that it made no sense to try to solve crises through dialogue with a party whose programme calls for Lebensraum and extermination of Jews, Grossman did and does not see that it makes no sense to try to solve crises through dialogue with a party which does not even put your country on maps, and calls for... extermination of Jews.

I do not want to downplay the heroic sacrifices of the common Israeli soldier over the past month, but when you compare the recent combat performance of the IDF with its achievements during six particular days in 1967, it is clear that the former is a far cry from the latter. Blame men like Grossman sr. In May 1940, the common western soldiers paid with their blood for the shortsighted defense policies of their respective countries. When one reads the now emerging complaints from Israeli troopers about poor equipment and old tanks without reactive armor, one is reminded of French tankers sent into battle in May 1940 in Renault FT17s from... 1917. Maybe Uri Grossman's tank was without reactive armor. Maybe that is why a Hizballah missile was able to penetrate it. Maybe... David Grossman in a way has the blood of his son on his hands.

To me, the son is a Hero forever. The father, a Coward. Forever.


MFBB.


P.S.: if you are one of those despicable white western males, you may have children whom you allow to watch infidel garbage such as Winnie the Pooh and Teletubbies. Watch what your Iranian - or Paleostinian counterpart for that matter - lets his offspring look at. And understand why people like David Grossman are not only deluded fools, but dangerous fools as well.