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Commentary;
Some are calling bizarre the “slip” which Prime Minister Olmert made yesterday in a statement made concluding his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheik.
Aaron Lerner of IMRA (Independent Media Research and Analysis) writes;
PM Olmert termed 29-year-old Israeli citizen, Ido Zoldan z”l of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, who was murdered Monday by Fatah members, a “soldier” in his remarks.
While agreeing with Lerner that the statement seems bizarre, this author would further opin that Olmert’s characterization symbolizes a typical lack of forethought in his words. And with this lack of forethought, the characterization of Zoldan as a “soldier” could be looked upon as a back-handed or unintended compliment.
For Ido Zoldan, the talmud chacham, the young man working as a builder for his Dad who was a leading building contractor in Judea and Samaria, was nothing if not a soldier. His weapons were NOT Uzis, ammo and grenades but rather his mind, heart, and emunah, his Gemora and his unabiding love for Jews, Eretz Yisrael and his home; Yishuv Homesh.
On Monday evening around 11:00 PM, Zoldan was returning to his home in Shavei Shomron after learning gemora with a chaverusa in Karnei Shomron. As he drove the normal route which took him through the Arab village of Funduk, near Kedumim, Palestinian Authority Arab Islamic terrorists fired on him.
According to initial information, a terrorist cell was waiting in ambush in the area for Israeli vehicles. When Ido, who was riding alone, came into range, the enemy attackers sprayed the vehicle with gunfire. The driver was critically injured, with multiple gunshot wounds, and he apparently died within minutes.
Soldiers summoned to the scene closed off nearby roads and began searching for the attackers.
Paramedics who arrived at the scene were unable to save his life.
Zoldan and his wife and family ere former residents of Yishuv Homesh who were chased from their homes suring the expulsion of Homesh (along with three other Shomron towns and Gush Katif) in August, 2005.
When the Homesh First movement was being formed in 2006, Ido Zoldan became one of its founders.
Israel National News provides more background on Zoldan;
A friend of the family, Gadi, said Ido was among the “guideposts” of Homesh and of the Homesh renewal movement. “A daring Golani officer,” said Gadi, “he was an unfailing Land of Israel loyalist. A man of Hebrew labor with his own 10 fingers. He was ready for any tiring or dangerous assignment at any moment, with no question and with no personal calculations; a smiling, generous friend, who spoke little and did much.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the leviya and burial of Ido Zoldan, z’l, who is survived by his wife, Tehila and two small children, three-year-old Aharon and one-year-old Rachel, took place in Kedumim.
And on Wednesday, Ehud Olmert made more “goodwill gestures” to the terrorist Abbas and his Palestinian Authority Arab Islamic cold-blooded murderers; 50 armored vehicles, as many as 1,000 rifles and 2 million bullets as well as the release of 431 murderous prisoners in the run-up to the so-called “Annapolis Summit” which is slated to begin on 27 November, 2 days short of 60 years since the United Nations voted for the partition of the land into Jewish and Arab states on 29 November, 1947 which formed the beginning of the modern-day medinat Yisrael.