The Best and Most Wonderful of Our Sons’

24 Nov 2007

10 Kislev 5768, 20 November 07 10:10

(IsraelNN.com) Thousands of mourners came to Kedumim Tuesday afternoon for the funeral of Ido Zoldan, 29, son of Nachman and Miriam Zoldan, who was killed by Arab gunmen late Monday night as he returned in his car from Karnei Shomron to Shavei Shomron, leaving his wife and two children, aged 3 and 1.

Ido (pronounced ee-doe), known affectionately by all who knew him as Idodee, had been studying in chevruta (a study group for Jewish learning) with a friend, and was on his way home when the terrorists riddled his car with bullets.

Gray clouds filled the sky and rain poured down on the funeral. The speakers were the leading spiritual and political voices of the Jewish communities in northern Samaria and in the rest of Judea and Samaria, nearly all of whom knew Ido well, and it was clear that this funeral was unlike others. The voices bespoke deep pain and angry courage. Ido was truly a beloved and inspiring individual.
Daniela Weiss, former Mayor of Kedumim: “You are the man of the open spaces. Your strong spirit and able body drank up all of the length and breadth of the Land of Israel. The distant and tall mountains of Homesh came closer, because of you¡­ “Physically, his death was caused by the weapon of an Arab murderer. The person guilty of his death is Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, and the Israeli government, that recently gave hundreds of weapons to Arab murderers, here, close by, in Shechem, the first Hebrew city¡­ “It has to be stopped, it must be stopped and it can be stopped. Shake yourself out of your stupor! We must leave the galut [diaspora]!”

Rabbi Daniel Shiloh, Kedumim: “If you could stand here with us, you would say: ‘Do not cry, keep on building, keep on protecting, keep the project going.’ [with a
MK Effie Eitam (NU/NRP): “This land says to us and to the group of cynical gamblers who have wrested control of the leadership of our nation. It tells them ‘enough.’ Enough with the corruption, enough of the cynicism, enough of this game you are playing with the lives of our best sons.

“This group is so distant, the exact opposite of the home you grew up in. How worthy of this land is your life, and how unfitting it is to the terrible group of cynical gamblers that have taken over our land. We shall not call you the government of Israel, but the government of weak gamblers, devoid of vision and devoid of truth. We, the Zoldan family, the Kedumim family, and the heroes of the building of this nation and this land, we shall patiently know how to build a leadership that the nation of Israel will be proud of.”

Watch video of the funeral on Israelnationalnews.com