Israel Mourns Assaf Ramon, Astronaut's Son

JERUSALEM Sept. 14, 2009 — -- Every Israeli mother fears what Rona Ramon experienced Sunday: the news that her son has been killed during his mandatory military service. Assaf Ramon was 21 years old, killed when his F-16 fighter jet crashed during a training exercise.

Assaf's death is a national tragedy, coming just six years after the death of his father, Ilan Ramon, who was considered a national hero for being Israel's first and only astronaut. Ilan Ramon was killed in the Columbia space shuttle explosion six years ago, when Assaf was 15 years old.

Shortly after his father's death, Assaf announced his dream of becoming a pilot. "I would like to share with him what he went through and how he felt. I believe it will make me feel closer to him," Assaf said in a 2004 interview with Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

Assaf will be buried next to his father today in the military cemetery in northern Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Rona Ramon on Sunday evening telling her, "Me and my wife Sara are crying with you, with the entire nation. I'll come to the funeral tomorrow." Netanyahu's scheduled meeting with U.S. special envoy George Mitchell will be postponed until Tuesday so that Netanyahu can attend.

"People on the streets started to cry when they heard Assaf died," Rina Esses, a mother and grandmother from Beit Shemesh said. "You feel like it happened to your own family."

Ehud Yehuda Segev, a 29-year-old teacher from Jerusalem, said he "felt like he had no air to breathe" when he heard the news. "Ilan Ramon was like an emissary of Israel to space," he said. "He and his son symbolize proud Israelis, who give to the country and achieve. They are role models that give strength and power to ordinary Israelis.

"After Ilan died, everyone hoped that the family would start a new life, to get strong. But when Assaf died, you know that the family will have to start again," Segev said.

After his telephone conversation, Netanyahu described the personal hell" Rona is going through. "It is double bereavement, which is almost a biblical tragedy of a father and son following their love for the skies, and ascending to the heavens in iron chariots, and coming back down in chariots of fire," Netanyahu said, according to Yediot Aharonot.