Israel: A Million Stars (video)

On July 24, 2006 Lt. Tom Farkash, 23, was killed along with another pilot when their Apache helicopter crashed en route to a mission across the Lebanese border during clashes with Hezbollah terrorists. Tom was a second generation pilot. Ever since he was a child he'd looked forward to the day when he could join the Israeli Air Force like his father.

The same evening Tom's family received word of his death, his sister Amit, along with a friend, composed a song entitled "A Million Stars" in his honor. It is her farewell song to him.

A Million Stars

You wanted to fly, you wished to go further
With half a smile, you rose higher
A million stars in the sky
Catch and show your colors Give me just one second more to say goodbye to you

You wanted to fly, you went much too far
In all this insanity, there is no one left to care for me
A million stars in the sky Catch and show your colors I wanted just a second more to say goodbye to you

I wanted to sing
You picked up a guitar
And now an angel is playing for me
So with you I am singing
A million stars in the sky
Catch and show your colors
I wanted to sing to you, to bid you a farewell
I wanted a single second more to say goodbye to you
Give me just one second more to say goodbye to you – bye Tom

Translated by Avi Tsur

More on Israel Memorial Day here.

(H-T: Ruminations)

Crucial Reading, Viewing and Hearing About Israel

(Jewlicious)

Daniel Gordis writes:

...to all those who are wringing their hands about Israeli intransigence and inflexibility, on this eve of Israeli Independence Day, a brief word about nations, and states, and purpose. For without understanding purpose, there's no understanding Israel.

Read the rest.

Watch IDF soldiers speak out about their experiences here.

And then, go over to Judy Lash Balint, who shares her insightful, moving POV on Memorial Day in Israel.

Here are several original items I've reported over the years about life in the Israel Defense Forces, and living with terrorism in Israel:

Inside the IDF: A Soldier's Story

Hear: Surviving a Suicide Bombing

Hear: Novelist Naomi Ragen: Writing in the Shadow of Terror

Hear: The mother of slain IDF soldier Nachson Waxman speaks out

Go here for more on my reporting, and how you can help keep it going.

And tomorrow:

On Wednesday, April 29 at 10:50 p.m. Israel time (3:50 p.m. EST, 2:50 p.m. CST, 12:50 p.m. PST), communities around the world will join together to sing Israel's national anthem Hatikva in honor of the 61st birthday of the State of Israel.

Live Hatikva will be broadcast around America and on the Internet streaming live at www.jltv.tv.

JerusalemOnline Memorial Day update (Video - Channel 2 TV)

Today's Headlines:

Click to watch Memorial Day ceremony: Israel remembers its fallen Click to watch a Memorial Day commemoration Click to watch a tribute to those who fought and fell for Israel Click to watch the story of an Israeli peace activist killed in a terror attack.

Click on screen for more news

22,305 Fallen: Every number a name, a face, a memory

Faith Under Fire

War Against Hizbullah, Summer 2006:
Israeli Defense Forces soldier at brief morning prayers
along northern border; smoke from a recently fallen Katyusha rocket rises in distance.
(Photo: Dave Bender - More images are here)

From the Israel Foreign Ministry:

A total of 22,305 men and women have been killed defending the land of Israel since 1860, the year that the first Jewish settlers left the secure walls of Jerusalem to build new Jewish neighborhoods.

In the past year, since Remembrance Day 2005, 233 members of the security forces - police, IDF, Border Police, Israel Security Agency and other organizations - have been killed in the service of the state.

Israel's 59th Independence Day celebrations will commence on Monday evening, April 23, when the state flag is raised to full mast at a national ceremony on Mount Herzl, at which twelve torches are lit.

Israel at 59: Statistics

Click image to view a memorial
film on Israel's fallen