He died along with another brave soldier from Samaria, Captain Elad Siman-Tov, and another three soldiers Major Ofek Bachar, Staff Sergeant Elyashiv Eitan Wieder, Staff Sergeant Yakov Hillel.
Staff Sergeant Yehudah Dror Yahalom, 21, was a Golani Reconnaissance unit soldier from Hevron who fell in a fierce battle in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
His middle name, “Dror”, is after Dror Weinberg, a Hevron Brigade commander who was killed in November 2002 during the “Oslo War”. Yahalom enlisted in the elite unit two years ago and returned to active duty even after marrying his wife Shachar from Itamar, the brave Jewish community in Shomron. I have seen the photos of their marriage, the joy under the chuppà. His mother Tehila: no words to describe her faith and strength, nor that of his father Moshe, who takes care of the graves of Ruth and Yishai in Hevron.
I keep looking at their wedding photos and I can’t imagine a funeral just three months later. Yet, this is Israel, this is the story of the Jewish people in its tragic moments.
I met Yehuda when he was 11. He was just a curious boy. I visited their home in Tel Rumeida, the community of the brave Israelis living in Hevron. An extraordinary mother and father who built a family of eleven children with the help of Hashem.
The friends at Yehuda’s funeral didn’t want to leave his grave. “Yehuda was raised to be a Maccabee, from an early age he wasn’t afraid of anything,” his grandfather, Hillel Weiss, tells me. Yehuda built the small community in the hills of Bethlehem called Havat Eitam, outside Efrat.
I am European and at 21 Yehuda's Western peers waste their lives in discos and other recreational good time activities. We cannot really imagine the sacrifice that this small country that the whole world seems to want to destroy, Israel, is called to pay cyclically, so that Yehuda's brothers and sisters can live.
Yehuda belonged to the “hilltop youth”, many of them have lived through the murder of friends and relatives by terrorists. They have adopted a very religious life style. They're not hanging out at discos. No steaming water. No electricity. They have held on to Judea and Samaria's barren hills for years.
No fences for them. They see the protective gear that has gripped the "settlements" as a sign of weakness. They know who they are. They know what being a Jew means. Itamar and Havat Eitam’s “colonists” are a tiny figure in the Middle Eastern conflict.
But in the eyes of the terrorists and their Western allies, Israel itself is just one big “settlement”. On a clear day from Itamar you can see the towers of Shalom Center in Tel Aviv. An from Havat Eitam you can see the border of Jerusalem. Their lives are a living statement: this is home and for this land we are ready to fight and lay down our lives.
Israel is the only country in the world where there is no monument to the unknown soldier, because each of those fallen in battle is a hero in Israel, and his name lives on like a flaming brand in the nation’s history.
The only consolation is that Yehuda died exactly as he lived. Standing. Proud. Courageous. In the presence of Hashem. Defending his country and his people.
After talking with his family, I am full of gratitude for having the chance to know him and them. And may Israel win its war of survival speedily and with faith in the future.
Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of 20 books, including two in English: A New Shoah, that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and The Vatican Against Israel: J'Accuse. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone Institute and Die Weltwoche. He is also a Middle East Forum Writing Fellow.