"Dad, why isn't there an Israeli astronaut?" asked Dean Issacharoff * the father, a man from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, thought it was a good idea - and rolled it on
Collected news
The boy who came up with the idea of sending an Israeli into space
Ilail Shahar, Ma'ariv reports that Dean Issacharoff was only five years old when he visited the Space Museum in Washington with his father, Jeremy Issacharoff. "It was in '96, a few days before the visit of Peres, who was the prime minister at the time, to the USA. In the museum there were pictures of astronauts from Saudi Arabia and other countries, and Dean asked me: 'Dad, why isn't there an Israeli astronaut?' I thought to myself, this is an excellent question."
Issacharoff, a Foreign Ministry official, who served at the time as the political advisor at the embassy in Washington, turned to Prof. Itamar Rabinowitz, then the Israeli ambassador. "I asked him what he thought about the fact that we would propose to the Americans that they attach an Israeli astronaut to one of the shuttles," he says. "Rabinowitz checked with the Prime Minister's Office, and came back to me with a positive answer. I started rolling out the idea. It was Thursday, Peres was supposed to arrive in Washington that night. I contacted David Setherfield, who was director of the Middle East Department at the National Security Council. He spoke with NASA over the weekend, and on Monday, at the press conference of Clinton and Peres, at the conclusion of the visit, the president announced that the Americans intend to attach an Israeli astronaut to the space shuttle."
Dean Issacharoff, today 11 years old, was excited to see the launch of Ilan Ramon into space. "I am very happy," he said yesterday. "When I came up with the idea I didn't think it would really come to fruition. At the launch I was very excited, and in the last minutes before it was really nerve-wracking."
Shimon Peres' office said yesterday that the five-year-old boy's idea fell on fertile ground: "Peres thought that Israel should participate in the American space program and therefore promoted the idea," said his spokesman, Yoram Dori, yesterday.
