Barak at IDF memorial: We'll do everything for Gilad

Defense minister addresses bereaved families at evening honoring fallen paratroopers, speaks of painful absence of founder of Unit 101 – Ariel Sharon. 'We are committed to making sure the State of Israel is worthy of the sacrifice made by the fallen'

Hanan Greenberg |Published: 10.07.08 , 21:40

Speaking at a memorial event honoring the fallen soldiers of the Paratrooper Corps on Tuesday evening, Defense Minister Ehud Barak paid tribute to one of the corps' most influential commanders.

"Again we find ourselves missing the man who founded the 101st and the 202nd Brigade – as it was then called, and for whom the spirit of the paratroopers was such an integral part of his path – former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."

Barak spoke of the moral decree inherited from the fallen soldiers. "We come back here again and again and again, out of a deep sense of wanting to return to the source of our values, to the foundations Israel was built on," he said, turning to the bereaved families and saying there were no words that could ever ease their sorrow.

"We remember them with great pain, their dedication, their valor, their camaraderie, and their sacrifice.

"We are committed to making sure the State of Israel is worthy of the sacrifice made by the fallen, that it be the country they dreamt in their mind's eye when they set out on their missions – a strong and secure Israel, a Zionist and Jewish nation, democratic and moral, a society that passes down its values of love compassion for mankind and patriotism to the future generation. A nation that holds the memory of the past as its guiding principle but also knows to gaze into the future."

The defense minister also reiterated the state's commitment to securing the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalt.

"Here today, before the Day of Atonement, we embrace the family of the bereaved as one, send our sincere prayers to the wounded and the handicapped, and vow once more to do everything we can to bring Gilad Shalit home safe and sound. We pray for our missing soldiers and their families, and wish all of you here and all of Israel that you be inscribed in the book of life. May the memory of the fallen be blessed."