On the day he left his Defense Ministry office in Tel Aviv, Yehoshua brought him the following letter, to which Yehoshua has never received an answer.

In these present days when Ariel Sharon returns, with all his weight, and our fate is now in his hands, I return to this letter of Yehoshua Zamir, who devotes all his time and the blood of his heart to cause of Peace.

"....February 6, 1983

To the Minister of Defense, Mr. Arik Sharon.

Dear Sir,

Eight months have passed since my son, Yaron, was killed at the Beaufort in Lebanon, and I am sending back your letter of condolence of July 1982. Except for the description of my son Yaron's character in the third paragraph, not one sentence in your letter is true.

I shall not allow you to express your codolence, and they are most certainly not sincere. For during these eight long months, neither you nor any of the high-ranking officers have found the time to come see us, console us, and answer our questions....

I shall not allow you to express your condolences, because neither personally nor through the media, did you ask our forgiveness for the pain and suffering you caused us when, atop the Beaufort, a mere 24 hours after our sons were killed there, you declared the Beaufort to be ours and made no mention of the names of those who were killed in the same place you tread.

Yaron Zamir was not taken from us. Yaron was killed in a premeditated war waged in a foreign land; there was no need for him to die and no good reason, and there shall never be a sense of consolation.

Yaron did not give his life for his country. You turned the country into an altar upon which you and your cohorts in power have sacrificed our son.

Yaron did not fall in "Operation Peace for the Galilee". He was killed in the Lebanon War, and there is no peace for the Galilee, not for the country, not for Jews abroad, and not for Lebanon either, this after 240 days of war!

Yaron was indeed killed in the battle for the Beaufort Castle in Lebanon, but we, the parents, were not permitted to have this inscribed on his gravestone.

.... When will you finally admit your failure? You would have imposed in Lebanon a new order, ounded upon bayonets, the bodies of our dead sons, and the hearts of their longing parents.

.... I hope this letter reaches you personally and you will find the time to read it in its entirety, and upon your desk, right before your eyes....

...and let your soul find no repose until you have resigned and begged for forgiveness.

With Burning Pain,

Yehoshua Zamir

"A homeland is not an altar"

Ora Armoni

"Hakibbutz" 15.10.98