I must dedicate a few words, even though you may not understand why at this point, about a soldier who was killed. Well his name was Tzur Zarchi, and he was the platoon commander of platoon 3 of our company. Contact was (it is so hard for me to write "was"). Tzur is a proud moshav resident of Nahalal and a dairy farmer by trade. He was a farmer in his entirety, quiet and rich as the fertile land of the valley in which he grew up. Before his death he had built and had managed a magnificent cowshed with about 300 heads of dairy cows and cattle. The cowshed was his great pride and he spoke of it with joy and in detail. In the said battle he had attempted to prevent the invasion of terrorists into the company's camp and was thereby exposed to danger and his tank was hit directly by an anti-tank missile that took Tzur from us prematurely. Tzur is a hero. I know that in the current cynical age, it is forbidden to talk about heroes. Heroes show up only in stupid American fairy tales and movies, but Tzur is a real hero. I am entirely secular, so that it is difficult for me to believe that he gazes upon us now from above. But if he would, I am sure that he had read your letter together with the rest of us and his soul is at peace since he had fought so that we would win, so that the spirit of freedom would triumph over blind darkness and hatred, so that the aspiration for peace would triumph over the yearning for death and pillars of smoke.

Eyal Ari, a letter in response to a letter sent to the company by a 7-year-old girl.