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| Down Under |
| Australian man dies fighting for Israel |
| 2006-07-27 |
| SERGEANT Asaf Namer's mother, Ava, begged her son not to fight but the 26-year-old's duty to his second home, Israel, drove him to volunteer for increasingly dangerous missions. The Bondi personal trainer yesterday became the first Australian to die in the war in Lebanon after he and seven others in his unit were killed in a Hezbollah ambush in the southern town of Bent Jbail late on Wednesday night (AEST). Still in shock yesterday, Ava Namer told The Australian that her son's death was not yet real to her. "I still can't believe it, and he wants to go into combat," she said, almost to herself as she packed to fly to Israel yesterday afternoon. "I'm just in shock, it's not true. It's horrible. "I said, 'Stay here, don't go'. No, he wants to go fighting for his country. He's 25 (sic), he should stay here, he shouldn't go." Ms Namer fled Israel during the 1991 Gulf War after it was targeted with Scud missiles, bringing Asaf and his older sister, Karin, now 29, to Australia. She learned of his death at 3am yesterday morning, six hours after the ambush in the Hezbollah stronghold, when local Israeli embassy staff phoned her and described what happened. "In Bent Jbail, they were in the mosque, all the Israelis were in the mosque, when they came out of the mosque they got ambushed," she said. She said that at the time of the phone call the officials said her son's body had not been recovered from the scene because of the fighting. Sergeant Namer had served as an Israeli soldier for just under two years, and planned to leave the service next month. Ms Namer pored over photos of her only son in uniform with his gun, and then pictures of an obviously happy young man with his girlfriend, Revital Bronstein, 29 - one of them lying on a bed together and another, arm in arm, by the sea in the Israeli city of Haifa. He had only just talked to his mother about marrying Ms Bronstein. "Maybe they get married, she was in the United States and when they came back they were going to live together," she said. "Next month he's finished then they were going to live together. "He said to me, everything's good, she loves him, he loves her, it was a big love." She said her son enjoyed military life. "He would have liked more, he wants more combat, in the dangerous ones," she said. Sergeant Namer's childhood friend Yael Mosesom told how the young soldier felt obligated to fight. She said he was a caring, headstrong young man. "He was such a unique kind of guy," she said. "He wasn't your average type of male, I can tell you that now." After graduating from Sydney's Moriah College with his HSC in 1997, Sergeant Namer began working as a personal trainer in Sydney, doing gigs at night as a DJ. "He was doing it because he loved music, like he was big on fitness just because he loved it," his best friend, Danny Senecky, 26, said. "It's an ideal for Jewish people. Going back to serve in the army is something that a lot of people aspire to but not many people actually do. Asaf was rare." In Israel, Sergeant Namer had been living with his grandmother in the town on Kiryat Yam, near Haifa. He had returned to his birth country to be with his father. Sergeant Namer had been serving with the Israel Defence Force's Golani 51 brigade when he was killed. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #2 A most worthy cause, a weary soldier at rest. Thank you for your selfless service. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-07-27 13:27 |
| #1 Yitgadal v'yitkadash Sh'mai rabah. Magnified and sanctified is the name of God. May your effort result in peace for all Israel, Sergeant Namer. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-07-27 12:40 |