Sunday, September 13, 2009

PM Netanyahu: Private pain has split nation's heart; "No words of condolence only Tears".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the death of Cpt. Assaf Ramon in the F-16 crash Sunday. "Few are the moments in which private pain slice through the national heart with such force. Today, the entire nation is consumed by unending grief over the death of Assaf, who fell from on high like his father, Ilan."

"This is a terrible tragedy for Rona and the entire Ramon family. This is a terrible tragedy for the entire Israeli nation."

The prime minister recalled the achievements of Asaf's father, Ilan, and that of his successor:" I was emotional when Ilan, the youngest pilot to bomb the nuclear death reactor in Iraq, took with him to space the memory of the Holocaust death camps."

"I was extremely emotional again when Asaf followed in his father's footsteps, graduating IAF's pilots' course with honors. The loss of each and every one of these magnificent people, the father and the son, is a disaster in of itself. The loss of them both is a pain too difficult to bear."

"There are no words of condolences for Rona and the Ramon family. There are no words of condolences to the people of Israel. There are only tears."