Moshe Keinan eulogizes his son Avihu

Yisrael Medad, Shiloh resident provided the following account of
Avihu Keinan's funeral:

"The last person to speak at the funeral of Avihu Keinan HY"D was his father, Moshe.

Moshe opened by saying that he promised that he would not break down and
cry and hoped that he would honor his son by keeping his composure.

He recalled that the previous evening, the Air Force Commander, in response to the letter of several pilots who will from now on refuse to participate in bombings of "civilian" targets, noted that the IDF was the most moral and ethical army in all the world.

Moshe Keinan rejected that.

He said that it was this policy that had killed his son.

If the IDF commanders who get their orders from the Minister of Defense and
the Government of Israel, prefer the deaths of Jewish soldiers, our own children, over the children of our enemies, then this is not moral.

He demanded that 270 Captains, 270 Majors, 270 Colonels, 270 Generals all inform the Minister of Defense Mofaz, that they too are willing to put their insignia and ranks on the table. They must demand to be permitted to put an end to this violence. The Government of Israel must know that the army is unwilling to sacrifice soldiers only to be called the most moral army in the world. He asked rhetorically, is this the way the French, the British or the American army acts?

He then finished by singing a Yiddish lullaby which he had sung to Avihu when he was a baby (Moshe Keinan is a Chazan, a member of Tel Aviv's Cantorial Choir scheduled to tour the USA and Canada in a few months):

"Mein yingeleh...Mein tayareh"

My young one, my cherished one
you are holy for me
My young one, my cherished one
oh that whatever is supposed to happen to you should happen to me instead.

When hard times come
and everything becomes black
I just look in your eyes
and there is light in my heart

My young one, my cherished one
you are holy for me
My young one, my cherished one
oh that whatever is supposed to happen to you should happen to me instead.


Then he spoke directly to Avihu: "When you were young, we used to compete in all sorts of things, like arm-wrestling, and running on the beaches of Tel Aviv. Sometimes I would let you beat me, and sometimes I wouldn't. But lately, you passed me in everything. Avihu, you were a moral soldier. An extremely moral soldier. You passed everybody."