Former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron Passes Away in Tel Aviv
(IsraelNN.com) Major-General Dan Shomron, the 13th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, passed away Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital. Two weeks ago, he was hospitalized following a massive stroke. Shomron, 70, leaves behind a wife and two children.
Maj.-Gen. Shomron, resident of Kibbutz Ashdot, served as IDF Chief of Staff from 1987 to 1991, capping a lengthy and decorated military service. In the 1967 Six-Day War, he commanded a unit on the Egyptian front and was the first paratrooper to reach the Suez Canal, earning a Medal of Distinguished Service. In 1976, as commander of the IDF infantry, Shomron led Operation Thunderbolt, in which IDF forces flew into Uganda and rescued hostages held in Entebbe by Arab and German terrorists.
Maj.-Gen. Shomron was the commander of the forces that oversaw the dismantling of Israeli communities and army bases in the Sinai Peninsula, under orders personally handed down by then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon in 1981. Israel relinquished the Sinai to Egypt in the framework of the 1978 Camp David Accords.
As IDF Chief of Staff, Shomron faced the Arab insurgency in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, also called the "first Intifada," which began in 1987. The limited confrontation lasted for several years and involved stabbings, stonings, shootings and other forms of violence against Israeli soldiers and civilians. In 1991, Saddam Hussein's Iraq launched 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the First Gulf War (America's Operation Desert Storm) and the Shamir government opted not to respond militarily.
During Gen. Shomron's four-year term as Chief of Staff, the IDF implemented an aggressive counter-terrorism policy that included strikes deep into territories used by Arab terrorists for planning and organization. Some of the boldest operations in this period, carried out by land, sea and air, remain classified.
After retiring from the military, Shomron was appointed Chairman of Israel Military Industries in 1991. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu invited Shomron to take part in the negotiations with the PLO ahead of the 1997 Hevron Accord.
In 2006, Shomron was appointed by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to assess the IDF performance during the Second Lebanon War. In his January 2007 report, the former IDF Chief of Staff said that the retaliatory war against Hizbullah was fought without any clear objective. He noted that the government issued a general directive to stop Katyusha rocket attacks, but that it was not clear under what terms the IDF was to execute the order.
On the political front, Dan Shomron founded the Third Way party in 1995 along with Avigdor Kahalani, but left the party before the Knesset elections. He was also a supporter of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount alongside author A. B. Yehoshua, Hebrew University Jewish philosophy professor Avi Ravitsky, and senior archaeologists such as Gabriel Barkai, Eilat Mazar, Ehud Netzer, Ronny Reich and Ephraim Stern. %ad%
In 2003, in a Jerusalem Post article on the events of the second Intifada, entitled "Back on the Oslo Track," Shomron wrote, "It is possible that our use of force has not been enough to accomplish a full strategic upheaval in the Palestinian consciousness. If not, we will have to take military action once again. The defense forces have to be prepared for this, as I'm certain they are."
Request for Prayers for Victim of Gas Leak Explosion
(IsraelNN.com) The public is requested to pray for a full and speedy recovery of Talia bat Yehudit Shlomit, who was critically injured in a gas explosion at her home in Maon, in the southern Hevron Hills. She tried to light the gas heater after returning from a memorial ceremony for her brother and his wife, who were killed a year ago in a traffic accident.
The huge blast left her with burns over most of her body. Her husband, Avichai ben Rivka, also was severely injured but managed to take their two young children outside through a window. They also suffered burns. Talia is the daughter of Rabbi Danny Stitskin, formerly of New York and who is the rabbi of Maon.
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