Givati Brigade commander eulogizes Hadar Goldin: ‘You were the best of the best’

The commander of the Givati Brigade recalls at Lt. Hadar Goldin’s funeral that even at the beginning of the slain officer’s military service, he was identified as outstanding.

“About 14 years ago, I was given the task of commanding the brigade’s preparation for the squad commanders’ course. More than a hundred of the brigade’s troops began the preparation. I sat down with the entire team of commanders to summarize and choose the outstanding trainees. I asked each commander to write on a note the name of the trainee he recommended for excellence. The trainee that everyone chose was you, our brother Hadar,” Col. Netanel Shamaka says.

“You were the best of the best. Even then, we saw in you those very special qualities of yours. Every task you were given, you carried out with excellence,” he says.

Since the day of Goldin’s killing and abduction on August 1, 2014, Shamaka says, “We have educated an entire generation of fighters and commanders in your spirit.”

“In every command course, in every training program, we told your story, we told of the spirit, the sense of responsibility, the integrity, and the professionalism,” he says.

During the ongoing war in Gaza, Shamaka says that everywhere the Givati Brigade operated, “we thought of bringing you back.”

“In this war… with all its painful costs and the heavy price we have borne as a people, as an army, and as a brigade, we have closed the chapter of Operation Protective Edge, a chapter that waited 11 years to be closed,” he adds.