HE war in Lebanon had ended. Galit Ram sat by the phone. Her daughter, Ella, 10 months old, was sleeping. She waited to hear from her husband, Sgt. Elad Shlomo Ram, who’d been called to reserve duty. She glanced out the window and saw three IDF officers step out of a car.
She broke down and sobbed even before they rang her bell.
"When someone dies three officers bring the news," she explained at the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces annual dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria.
It was the last day of hostilities. Elad and his commander crossed the border with supplies and food for an IDF unit holed up in a small village.
Hezbollah opened fire, wounding eight soldiers in the unit. Elad and his commander quickly carried six men to safety. Elad and his commander came back for the two remaining wounded soldiers.
Suddenly they took a direct hit from a missile. All four men were killed instantly.
After telling her story Galit rested her head on dinner chairman Benny Shabtai’s shoulder. Tears dampened his tuxedo. You could hear the sniffles among the 1,300 guests.
Galit’s words moved many in the audience to pledge support for the IDF. Donald Trump announced a gift of $250,000. Film producer Haim Saban was in for a million. He got a standing ovation. Another guest declared, "I won’t say how much but I will match it," which prompted Saban to double his donation. That got him another standing ovation.
It turned into a game of financial giants with egos to match. Someone from Brooklyn proudly contributed two million. That earned him a standing ovation.
Saban, the Hollywood titan, couldn’t stand such chutzpah. He jumped up once again and barked, "Thank you for your million dollars! Thank you for your two million dollars! I’m up to three million dollars!"
And that’s how it went that night, with many more declaring for the welfare of Israel’s defenders.
During a live interview by satellite at an IDF base, a lieutenant and sergeant, their faces in shadow to protect their identity, recalled a nighttime operation in Tyre that resulted in two casualties. Shachal was shot in the chest, Itzik in the face.
"We had to disengage and return before sunrise," the lieutenant said. "But we also had to operate immediately on Shachal to save his life. Our medic was so tall that he was able to operate while walking along and leaning over the stretcher."
Shachal survived. Itzik required plastic surgery on his face. "He looks better than before," the sergeant quipped.
