1. WOUNDED IDF SOLDIER: "SO I LOST A LEG; SO WHAT?"
By Hillel Fendel
Two soldiers wounded in Lebanon say they have nothing to complain
about, they have no regrets that they were wounded protecting the
country, and the media should stop concentrating on nonsense.
Sgt. Eran Perry, who lost his right leg above the knee, and Sgt.
Evyatar Cohen, whose right hand is not functioning, spoke, bareheaded,
from the hospital on Israel Television Thursday night. For those who
thought that values were a thing of the past, the following is a rough
translated transcript of what they told interviewer Katy Dor and was
broadcast to the country:
Eran [Regarding alleged problems with food supply]: Look, there were
some problems with food, but that's the way it is, it's war. You take
some food and supplies, and then they bring some more in a Puma [an
IDF-made armored combat vehicle], and then the Puma gets hit by an
anti-tank missile. So what are you going to do? You can't complain or
criticize; it's war.
Evyatar: At that moment, what you're thinking about is staying alive
and about protecting each other. There are some who didn't eat all
day just because they didn't feel like it, because of the fear or
whatever. Food and things like that - they're just not things that
you think about.
Eran: What you're thinking about is that you and your friends should
come out alive. I'll tell you the truth: When I got hurt, the medics
checked me, and I saw I was OK, without a leg - OK, but all I thought
about was that I shouldn't get kidnapped [by Hizbullah], and that your
friends who are busy at war shouldn't get killed. But instead, people
here are worrying about total nonsense.
Evyatar: All they're worrying about is whether the Chief of Staff sold
stocks or didn't sell stocks.
Eran: The newspaper today - the whole front page was about the Chief
of Staff and his stocks. [Chuckling] - you're nodding, but it's your
fault [plural] as well. But it's such nonsense. Here, look, I'm
without a leg - considered a "moderate" wound; first I was
"seriously
wounded," and now it's considered "moderate" - a lot of good that
does
me - and yet in the newspaper there's a tiny little snippet saying
there are 5moderately wounded and 12 seriously wounded - and at the
same time, a whole entire page about the Chief of Staff.
Interviewer: What are you actually trying to say by this?
Eran: That people are worrying too much about things that are
marginal... If you ask me, as I hear in your tone, whether I regret
having lost my leg, of if I think it was for nothing - I say no, I
don't think it was for nothing. I don't regret it for a second. It's
not like there's some kind of [political debate] here... I would go
out again to war with the knowledge that it could happen to me. This
is a war that we didn't start, and it was very difficult and crappy,
but I, and all my friends, went out with the clear knowledge that it's
- it's either me and Evyatar here - or, well, if it's not us, then -
this is what we're in the army for. This is how we protect the borders
of the State of Israel. I can't cry or complain to anyone and worry
that I might get wounded when Katyushas are falling at home and people
are getting killed. I mean, I'm a soldier now, and I give my three
years; what can I do that they happened to fall on this war? I mean
there are reservists who are in the same situation. If it's not us,
then no one else will...
As far as whether the war was handled correctly, or not correctly -
what, every soldier in the middle of the battle will start giving his
opinion on whether the Chief of Staff or the Northern Commander is
doing it right or wrong, and whether we should take this village or go
a different way? It can't work that way.
...
Evyatar: The main thing is that we are alive, and therefore we have a
lot to be grateful for; we now go forward. It's real nonsense - a
hand, a leg, it's really not important. [In response to interviewer's
raised eyebrows], yes, really nonsense.
Eran: Vanity of vanities, compared to people who lost their sons or
their friends; total nonsense.
Evyatar: I mean, the bottom line is we're here!
Eran (chuckling): I'll have a prosthesis, and he'll learn to write
with his left hand... No problem, I'll walk regularly; they told me
that they have a prosthesis that I won't even limp [with] at all, and
I hear that the Defense Ministry takes care of its wounded. I'm
alive. And he'll learn to tie his shoes with his left hand, and it
could be that his hand will even come back to normal -
Evyatar [smiling]: - with G'ds help -
Eran: I mean, people lost their friends, and their sons, and their
husbands, and their fathers - so who are we at all to say anything...
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