2 soldiers slain on W. Bank hike; kill 1 attacker - Haaretz

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Mon., December 31, 2007 Tevet 22, 5768

Israel Time: 02:02 (EST+7)

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2 soldiers slain on W. Bank hike; kill 1 attacker

By Haaretz Correspondent and AP , By Nadav Shragai

The funeral procession for Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin, the two soldiers who were shot to death by terrorists while hiking near Hebron, set out yesterday from Kiryat Arba, where the men lived, to the cemetery on Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl. While eulogizing his friends, Benia Sarel, his voice choked with tears, discussed the profound cultural gaps between himself and and settlers from Kiryat Arba his age and what he termed the "low/lowland state."

"Tomorrow morning," Sarel told the thousands who gathered in Kiryat Arba, "the entire state that lives in the lowland will wake up and be interested in how many centimeters Ninet's hair grew [referring to the recently shaven pop star]. All the army office clerks and draft evaders hadn't managed to wake up before you already managed to march, hike, fight and die."

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Rubin and Ahikam Amihai, both in their 20s, were hiking with a woman from Kiryat Arba when four Palestinian terrorists opened fire on them from a Jeep.

Rubin and Amihai, who were soldiers on leave from the Israel Defense Forces, managed to return fire, reportedly killing one of the terrorists and injuring another, before they died. Their female companion was uninjured.

Early yesterday IDF troops arrested six Palestinians from Hebron in connection with the attack. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said his security forces had arrested an unspecified number of suspects in the killing and had passed on to Israel weapons taken from Rubin and Amihai by their Palestinian attackers.

Sarel was not the only speaker to describe the cultural differences between the "state of Tel Aviv" and the "different spirit." Rabbi Dov Lior, the rabbi of Kiryat Arba, spelled out for anyone who doubted the logic that led Amihai and Rubin to their final hike.

"You can't lock the young people into a ghetto. The people of Israel returned to its land to live a life of courage and heroism, not [to live] behind concrete barriers. Young people will continue to hike and to redeem the land," Lior said.

Soldiers who took part in the funeral described Amihai and Rubin as courageous soldiers. High school friends spoke of two young men who never stopped hiking all over Israel. Neighbors from Kiryat Arba focused on the men's families, families with some of the most respected rabbis in the community.

Ahikam was the fifth child of Rabbi Yehuda Amihai and his wife Esther, and a grandson of Rabbi Tzvi Neria, "father of the knitted scullcap generation." Rabbi Yehuda Amihai is head of the Torah and Land Institute, formerly in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip.

David was the eldest son of Rabbi Mishael Rubin and his wife Yosefa. Rabbi Rubin is rabbi of Hebron's Shavei Hebron yeshiva, located in Beit Romano in Hebron. Ahikam is survived by nine siblings, David by seven.

The funeral itself was quiet. The two rabbi fathers are identified with the "state" stream of religious Zionism. They and their students view the state, despite its errors, as sacred and as the first stage in the process of religious redemption. They oppose the religious Zionist stream that seeks to distance itself from the state and its institutions.

The families live in neighboring apartment buildings in Kiryat Arba. Both boys studied at the Mekor Haim high school yeshiva in Kfar Etzion and volunteered for elite IDF units. Ahikam, whose draft was delayed, enlisted about a month ago to the Shaldag commando unit. David served for 16 months in the naval commando unit. Before his induction he studied in the West Bank settlement of Eli and in a yeshiva in Mitzpeh Ramon. Ahikan did a year of national service in the Hebrew University's Cave Research Unit in Ofra, in the West Bank.

Rabbi Lior, in his eulogy, said that both Rubin and Amihai fulfilled the commandment to travel the length and breadth of Israel in their lives, and in their deaths. "They fell in the war for the right to live and move freely in our holy land," Lior said.

Some speakers at the funeral denounced the government, calling it a "partner in murder." "Those who release terrorists, provide arms to terror organizations and consider relaxing the criteria for releasing murders even further sends the message to terrorists that it's worth it to continue to murder and hurt and kill us," Kiryat Arba Council head Benny Katzover said.

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