rooms. With difficulty the doctor managed to free himself and give Sancho a tranquilizing injection.
The doctor’s life was turned into hell. Every morning Sancho would appear with a new idea. Sometimes he heard a shell approach-ing and hid under the table. On another day he chased the doctor around the whole camp to demonstrate a bayonet attack.
We, the friends of Sancho, enjoyed the duel. We placed bets on who would go mad first - Sancho or the doctor. They were both obstinate and didn’t give up easily. In the end the doctor was con-vinced that Sancho had really lost his reason. He arranged his trans-fer to a mental hospital.
In the evening Sancho joined in the big attack on Iraq al-Madi. No one knows to this day what made him do it. He did a favor for another radio operator, who had arranged something in Tel Aviv. It is possible that he wanted to take his leave of the front.
Most of the attackers were killed or wounded. The few who remained unhurt could not carry back all the wounded. When they saw that it was starting to get light, they placed twelve of the seriously wounded between cactus stems, only a few paces from the Egyptian lines, until they could be recovered the next night. When they went back there, the wounded were gone. Sancho was among the twelve who were lost...
* * *
An officer makes a speech. The usual one. "He died for the mother-land .... Generations will remember him ..." Suddenly Sancho is standing next to me. He is leaning against a tree, runs his fingers through his fine blond hair, and winks at me.
"Zionism!" he whispers to me. "Boring. What are you doing here?"
"Sancho," I whisper back. "This is a memorial ceremony for you."
"Memorial ceremony?" He is surprised. "I hate memorial cere-monies. What sort of nonsense is he talking?" The speech continues. I can predict every single sentence in detail. "By your grave we swear to you ... we will continue on your path ..."
"Idiot!" says Sancho. "What’s this rubbish? Are we all supposed to be buried? If we all die there won’t be anyone to stand there and salute."
"A loyal sacrifice," the speaker continues. "He sacrificed himself, just as we are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for the motherland ..."