Sgt. Dor Dery’s brother: ‘God only takes the best’

At funeral, Deri remembered as ambitious soldier who excelled in the commander's course he had just begun and in the basic training that he started in November.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Sgt. Dor Deri (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
Sgt. Dor Deri
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN'S OFFICE)
Sgt. Dor Dery became the ninth soldier buried at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery since Operation Protective Edge began three weeks ago at a tearful funeral on Tuesday.
Terrorists killed Dery, 18, of the Kfir Brigade, during an infiltration into Israel on Monday via a tunnel from the Gaza Strip.
A terrorist cell came out of a tunnel near Kibbutz Nahal Oz and fired an anti-tank missile at the base of an IDF watch tower, killing five soldiers, including Dery and Sgt. Barkai Yishai Shor, who was buried on Mount Herzl after Dery.
At the funeral, Dery was remembered as an ambitious soldier who excelled in the commander’s course he had just begun and in the basic training that he started in November. He was memorialized as a good student, an entertainer, a loving son to his parents, David and Ronit, and a good friend to his brothers, Shimon, Avichai and Zohar.
“They say that God only takes the best, and you are proof,” Shimon said. “I wish you could give us a sign you weren’t in pain, that you didn’t suffer, that you were a real hero.”
Lt.-Col. David Shapira, who eulogized Dery on behalf of the IDF, said he was a model soldier in the Shimshon Battalion who was full of energy and joy of life. Shapira promised Dery’s family to continue fighting the enemy “as Dor would have wanted.”
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat offered his condolences to David, a veteran employee of the city, who raised his family in the capital’s Gilo neighborhood. Barkat recalled that when Dor was preparing for the army, he ran the Jerusalem Marathon. A picture from the event of Dery and Barkat was on Dery’s Facebook timeline.
“Our heart is crying for the tall, smiley kid whom everyone loved,” Barkat said.
“We have seen the special spirit of unity in the nation. Our spirit will not fall.”