Pumpkinflowers (19 page)

NOTES ON SOURCES

Quotes that appear in the text in quotation marks are from documents, recorded interviews, or my own notes. Dialogue retrieved from memory appears without quotation marks.

All military documents and newspaper articles cited in the source notes are originally in Hebrew, translations mine.

Chapters 1–3

Descriptions of Fighting Pioneer Youth (Hebrew: Nachal, an acronym for Noar Halutzi Lohem) basic training in 1994 are from conversations in 2013 and 2014 with members of Avi's platoon, drafted into the brigade's engineering company in March 1994: Matan Dishon, Gal Perlmutter, Ilya (Elia) Libman, Amit Nisim, Amos Squverer, and Dotan (Guli) Wolfson. Additional details are from a booklet of photographs and writing compiled by the platoon after their discharge in 1997 and from my own experiences as a recruit at the same base three years later. Avi's childhood stories are from interviews with Yossi and Raya Ofner in 2013 and 2014.

Chapter 4

“A. reached basic training”: Courtesy of the Ofner family, translation mine.

Chapter 5

“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”: Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” written 1917, revised 1918. In
Wilfred Owen:
Th
e War Poems
, ed. Jon Stallworthy (London: Chatto & Windus, 1994).

The list of books that Avi borrowed from the library is glimpsed on a computer screen in a film made by the Ofner family,
Kahalom Ya'uf
(Like a flitting dream), during an interview with Naomi Bassi, the librarian from the kibbutz (Sde Eliyahu) where Avi attended high school. The lullaby is Emmanuel Harussi's
“Shkav Beni”
(Lie down, my son) (1929).

Biographical information about Romain Gary is from David Bellos,
Romain Gary: A Tall Tale
(London: Harvill Secker, 2010). Gary's
Th
e Kites
(French:
Les cerfs-volants
) was published in French by Editions Gallimard in 1980 and appeared in Hebrew in 1983 as
Afifonim
,
published by Am Oved. At the time of this writing a first English translation has been undertaken by Miranda Richmond-Mouillot for the U.S. publisher New Directions.

Chapter 6

From interviews with Avi's platoon. Gal Perlmutter's nickname in Hebrew was “the Good Fairy,” but I have rendered it “the Angel” because that roughly matches the Hebrew meaning without the connotations attached to
fairy
in English.

“actively trained, like the French Army, for the war of 1914”: Romain Gary's memoir
Promise at Dawn
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961).

Chapter 7

For background on the 1982 invasion, see Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Yaari,
Israel's Lebanon War
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984). For background on the security zone in Hebrew, see Moshe (Chico) Tamir's memoir
Milhama Lelo Ot
(Undeclared war) (Tel Aviv: Israel Defense Ministry Publishing, 2005). See also the first chapter of Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel's
Korei Akavish
(Spider's web) (Tel Aviv: Yediot Books, 2008), about the Lebanon war of 2006, translated into English as
34 Days
:
Israel, Hezbollah, and the War in Lebanon
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); and Gal Luft, “Israel's Security Zone in Lebanon—A Tragedy?”
Middle East Quarterly
7, no. 3 (September 2000): 13–20.

“born with a knife in their hearts”: Haim Gouri,
“Yerusha”
(Heritage), in the collection Shoshanat Ruchot (Windrose) (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuhad, 1960).

The relay of bonfire signals “from the Mount of Olives to Sartaba” is from the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah, ch. 2).

Outpost Pumpkin (Hebrew: Mutzav Dla'at) was built by a company of reservist engineers in the summer of 1983, according to interviews I conducted in 2013 with documentary filmmaker David Kerpel, a member of the company. No importance seems to have been attached to the event: I could find no photographs or official record, and when I contacted a second soldier from the company and the battalion commander neither remembered the outpost from a distance of thirty years.

Chapter 8

Ilya is Ilya (Elia) Libman, interviewed in 2014.

Chapter 9

Eran is Eran Stern of the Givati Brigade Engineering Company. The description of the Pumpkin Incident of October 29, 1994, is from interviews in 2013 with Eran; with the outpost commander, Maor Binyamini (then deputy company commander); and with Ofir Zilberstein, then a sergeant in the company. Additional information comes from a redacted two-page account of the incident in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) archive, titled “Appendix 1: Attack on Outpost Pumpkin 29/10/94,” compiled by Division 91 HQ, November 7, 1994. The Hezbollah video can be found on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMuaiDcFp8A.

“though he was physically unharmed he never recovered”: Chen Kotas-Bar, “Eighteen Years Later: The Soldier Who Abandoned His Post Talks about the Shame,”
Maariv
, July 28, 2012.

The soldier killed at the outpost was Sgt. Almog Klein, twenty-one. The officer whose back was bloodied was Lt. Moshe Gerstner, and the soldier with him was Ofir Zilberstein. Eight years later, in April 2002, as a twenty-nine-year-old officer in the reserves, Gerstner was killed in fighting with Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Hezbollah account is from the Arabic book by Salim Elias,
Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya wal-Amal al-Askari
(The Islamic resistance and military operations) (Beirut: Lebanese Cultural Center for Printing, Publishing, Translation, and Distribution, 2006). Translated for me by Dr. Dan Naor.

“Disgrace” was the one-word headline of a page 2 article in
Yediot Ahronot
, October 31, 1994.

“When fear and crying become respectable subjects”: Ron Ben-Yishai, “All They Needed to Do Was Look Up,”
Yediot Ahronot
, November 4, 1994. Ben-Yishai writes in the same article that the role of parents in the army is becoming “like the parent-teacher association.”

The incident in which a soldier punched a rude motorist in the face was witnessed by Ofir Zilberstein, interviewed in 2013.

Chapter 10

“A Bank, Not a Tank”: Headline of a front-page analysis piece on October 31, 1994, in the daily
Maariv.

“The fighting spirit has been broken”: Yaron London, “The Givati Symptom,”
Yediot Ahronot
, November 1, 1994.

Chapter 11

From an interview with Yohai Ben-Yishai in 2014, shortly after his retirement from military service, and from interviews with Avi's parents and the members of his platoon. The precise date of the incident in Arnoun in late 1994 is unclear; I found no record of it in the IDF archive. Avi's surprise at being tired by the sprint for a stretcher is from an interview with Matan Dishon.

Chapter 12

From interviews with Yossi and Raya Ofner, and with members of Avi's platoon.

Chapter 13

“Morning will rise soon here in Lebanon”: Letter to Smadar Oren, October 7, 1995. All letters courtesy of the Ofner family. Additional details from an interview with Smadar Oren, 2013.

One of the medics who treated Yohai Ben-Yishai was Omri Levi, interviewed in 2013.

Chapter 14

“lost a rifleman and two trackers in an ambush among nearby olive trees”: This incident occurred on June 18, 1995. The three were Staff Sgt. Hillel Rosner of the Givati Brigade Engineering Company, and trackers First Sgt. Hani Muhammad and First Sgt. Hashem Rahal.

The quotes from Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag (1885–1954) are from his essays “The Giving of the Torah” (1933) and “Critique of Marxism in light of new reality, and a solution to the question of the unification of all streams of the nation” (mid-1930s, precise publication date unknown). I used the Hebrew versions archived on the website www.ohrhasulam.org, run by followers of Ashlag in Israel. Translations are mine.

Descriptions of the May 17, 1995, incident in which Eran Stern was wounded and Staff Sgt. Amir Kra, the lookout, was killed, are from interviews with Eran in 2013; with Helen Kurz Kra, Amir's mother, in 2014; and with Avishai Sofer, a comrade of Amir's who was at the outpost during the incident, also in 2014. Additional information from a redacted document in the IDF archive titled “Incident at ‘Pumpkin' May 17, 1995.” The TV footage, including raw footage shot that day, was provided to me by Eran Stern, whose family obtained it from the TV station after he was wounded. The conversation between Amir Kra and the woman soldier at headquarters in Israel, Daniella Raz, appeared in a television segment prepared in 2013 by Channel 1 reporter Yair Weinreb, a friend of Amir's. Raz (now Raz-Weinreb) later became Weinreb's wife, and he presented the conversation as she remembered it. I spoke with Weinreb in 2013. Amir's note (“In a few days I'll be on my way to another outpost . . .”), on three pages from a yellow notepad, dated December 1994, was provided to me by Helen Kurz Kra.

Chapter 15

“to calm my internal combustion”: Letter from Avi to Smadar, May 29, 1996.

“Now I'm keeping it in hiding” and “The point is that we are changing”: Letter from Avi to Smadar, May 28, 1996.

“I understood, only too well, those who refused to follow de Gaulle”: Gary's
Promise at Dawn.

Chapter 16

“Not many journalists come here”: Sever Plocker, “Two Fingers from Nabatieh,”
Yediot Ahronot
, April 3, 1996.

Avi's travel plans and thoughts on Ireland (“a country of contradictions, just like me”) are from a letter to Smadar, May 29, 1996. In the letter he mentions that U2's “One” came on the radio and he stopped writing to listen.

Chapter 17

The “friendly fire” incident mentioned involved a Golani Brigade platoon near the Lebanese town of Taibeh on December 30, 1998. The soldier killed was Staff Sgt. Ohad Zach, nineteen.

The description of the Falcon Incident (Hebrew: Irua Baz) of June 10, 1996, is from interviews with Yaacov Artom in 2014; from an account of the battle written by Yaacov after his discharge; from a file in the IDF archive titled “ ‘Falcon' Ambush—Engagement by Engineering Company with Hezbollah Cell in the Sector of Outpost ‘Pumpkin,' ” dated June 26, 1996; and from a longer file on the incident prepared for use as an educational tool for soldiers, titled “Ali Taher Range Incident.” The medic who remembered treating the wounded but could not remember hearing any sound is Amit Nisim, interviewed in 2014. The soldiers killed were Lt. Yishai Shechter, twenty-one; Lt. Lior Ramon, twenty; Staff Sgt. Eshel (Amir) Ben-Moshe, twenty-one; Staff Sgt. Idan Gavriel, nineteen; and Sgt. Yaniv Roimi, twenty.

“Everything's okay”: Interview with Yossi and Raya Ofner, 2013.

Chapter 18

“I have the feeling that everything is disintegrating”: Letter to Smadar, June 11, 1996.

“His discovery of danger does not come at once”: Lord Moran,
Th
e Anatomy of Courage
(London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1945), quoted in Peter Vansittart's
Voices from the Great War
(Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983).

“short, bloody, spasmodic silent fights”: Gary's Promise at Dawn.

Chapter 19

Details on Avi's time in Tel Aviv are from interviews with Yossi and Raya Ofner, and from a scrapbook prepared by his roommates, Rotem and Orit (no last names appear), and given to the Ofners in February 1997. The scrapbook includes a letter from the roommates describing the time they spent with Avi, as well as notes they exchanged with him in late 1996 and early 1997.

Chapter 20

“bought for $15 at stores selling garden ornaments”: Interview in 1999 with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah's head of military operations, quoted in Judith Palmer Harik,
Hezbollah:
Th
e Changing Face of Terrorism
(London: I.B. Tauris, 2004).

Details of Avi's last days at the Pumpkin are from interviews in 2013 and 2014 with Yossi and Raya Ofner, Gal Perlmutter, and Mordechai Etzion.

Chapter 21

Details of Avi's arrival at the airstrip on February 4, 1997, are from interviews with Yossi and Raya Ofner, and in 2013 with Yair Barkat (Bareket), then commander of the Pumpkin (and at the time of the interview a senior officer in the IDF's Home Front Command). Barkat recalled the argument with Lt. Col. Moshe Mualem, the commander at the airstrip, who died in the crash.

Details on the helicopter accident are from the IDF archive, “Commission of Inquiry into the Circumstances of the Yas'ur Accident of February 4, '97,” April 16, 1997. (
Yas'ur
is the Hebrew designation for the Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopter.) This report was declassified by the archive for the first time at my request, though not in full. It concluded that the possibility of a technical malfunction, or the detonation of explosives on board, was “low,” and that the accident was most likely the result of pilot error. Some additional details are from a January 2011, report on the crash compiled for the army by military historian Meir Amitai (“The
Nachal
Brigade in the Helicopter Disaster, February 4, 1997”).

Harel, the soldier who had departed for officers' training, is Harel Kaufman, later my commander in the brigade's antitank company. The other ten members of his team, led by Lt. Dotan Cohen, twenty-two, were on the helicopter headed to Beaufort Castle. The trackers Hussein and Kamel are Master Sgt. Hussein Bashir, thirty-five, and Sgt. First Class Kamel Rahal, twenty-six, both from Beit Zarzir.
Gil is Lt. Gil Eisen, twenty-one. Shiloh is Staff Sgt. Shiloh Levi, twenty-two. Avner is Staff Sgt. Avner Alter, twenty-two; the description of Avner's reaction to the Falcon Incident comes from a letter he wrote to his girlfriend (dated November 21, 1996), included in a memorial book which can be found in the library at his kibbutz, Ashdot Yaakov. Tom is Staff Sgt. Tom Kitain, twenty-one, of the Jewish Arab village Neveh Shalom / Wahat es-Salaam, near Jerusalem. Abukassis is Lt. Shai Avekassis (a Hebraicized version of Abukassis), twenty-two. Vitaly is Sgt. Vitaly Pesachov, twenty-two; information on his birthplace is from the Defense Ministry's website, www.izkor.gov.il. Mulatu is Sgt. Mulatu (Asher) Gideon, twenty-0ne; information on his family's trek from Ethiopia is from press reports published after the crash. Vadim is Capt. Vadim Melnik, thirty-four; information on his life is from a memorial book compiled by his family, found in the memorial archive for victims of the helicopter crash, Har Ve-Gai high school, Kibbutz Dafna. For more on the victims, see www.the73.org.