24/04/2026
Dear Friends,
This morning I received the terrible news that my friend Ido Fromer was killed yesterday in a paragliding accident in the Negev that he loved so much. He was accompanied by two of his sons, who witnessed the accident as it occurred. For the last thirteen years Ido lived with his family in Yerucham, where he first taught mathematics and robotics and then became the director of education for the town as a whole.
Ido was also a Lt. Colonel in the Israeli Air Force, where he served as a navigator, squadron commander, drone operator and most recently, as the liaison officer with the U.S. Air Force and Navy fighting together with Israel in Iran. However, I came to know Ido because of his passion for the study, teaching and practice of military ethics.
During his regular service in the Air Force, while serving at the IDF War College, Ido became an expert on military ethics from perspectives of both Judaism and International Law. At the end of his years of regular service and while in reserves he taught other pilots when and when not to unleash the immense power at their disposal. He also shared his profound insights and experience with many Keshet groups that met with him on IAF bases or our hotels.
Ido did not simply deal with these issues from a theoretical perspective. He once told me that as a drone operator he needed to make life and death decisions in a maximum of thirty second windows and that he needed to live with the assumption that despite his best efforts he could not be sure that his decisions were always correct. And yet, Ido believed passionately that the meaning of Jewish sovereignty is embodied in our responsibility to act ethically and legally while defending Israel against enemies who have no regard for either morality or International Law.
Following the massacre of October 7th Ido was chosen by the IAF to serve as a commander in the War Room of the Southern Command, where his job was to either approve or veto attacks on Hamas terrorists who were purposely embedded among civilians, including women and children. Other pilots relied on his professionalism and fundamental morality when they set off on their missions. Ido spoke freely about the challenges this role imposed on him, but he was convinced that this is the essence of Jewish sovereignty- taking responsibility for the both the defense of the Jewish people while maintaining the highest possible standards of morality and ethical behavior.
Israel and the Jewish people will miss him enormously.
Yitzhak
