We'll Pump You Up at...
T HE
The Need To Counter
Terror With Normalcy
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GARY ROSENBLATT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
ow do Israelis deal with the
daily threat of terrorism
hanging over them? On
some level, they don't.
Instead, they choose to ignore
the problem because it is unsolv-
able.
So you fight the insanity of
bloodshed and violence by going
about your daily routine here with
a purposeful sense of normalcy.
Doing things the way you have al-
ways done them becomes a kind
of internal therapy.
A friend told me that the day
after the suicide bombings at
1Vlachane Yehuda, she made it her
business to shop there, davka
(specifically) to make a point —
as well as to find the best prices
for fruits and vegetables.
Indeed, 24 hours after the fa-
tal explosions, the market was as
busy as usiinlfor a Thursday, the
big shopping day in the week.
Israelis, unfortunately, have
too much experience when it
comes to terror. They have
learned how to cope, and they go
into a certain mode when such
tragedies occur, calling family and
friends, checking in and checking
up, letting loved ones know they
are all right and making sure
everyone is accounted for. This is
not a matter of courtesy or con-
sideration; it is a serious ritual
and those who forget to do so are
berated.
For the briefest of times, the
country unites, sometimes with
anger over the politics that led to
this craziness and more often with
softer words, acknowledging the
pain an entire nation is feeling.
But once the victims have been
laid to rest, the pace of life re-
sumes. Jewish tradition may call
for seven days of mourning, but
tragedy strikes Israel too fre-
quently — and people are too in-
tent on recovering their psychic
equilibrium — to shut down their
hearts or their offices for more
than a day or two.
H
/—
Thousands in Israel observed
a moment of silence, before an im-
portant soccer game, for the vic-
tims of the bombings. Then the
crowd cheered as the two teams
went at it. Some observers said
the game should have been post-
poned, but most felt the tribute
was fitting, recognizing the
tragedy but showing that life
must go on.
A visitor to Israel feels caught
between the passionate commit-
ment of Israelis who insist on
maintaining their daily routine
and those Americans back home
convinced that Israel is a highly
dangerous place. Being in Israel,
walking the streets of Jerusalem
day or night and taking public
transportation, I still feel safer
than in New York. But I don't dis-
miss the government warnings to
take security precautions, either.
Terror, like everything else in
Israel, is political. So it may be
statistically more likely that I will
be a victim of a mugging in New
York, but the notion of being
blown up in Israel simply because
one is a Jew is far more horrify-
ing.
I still have much to learn. about
the Israeli psyche and soul. My
most poignant inspiration comes
from Dana Shimshon, a 22-year-
old Jerusalemite who was so bad-
ly burned in a bus bombing last
year that she was taken for dead.
Fortunately, with the love of her
parents, boyfriend, family and
friends, and the medical exper-
tise of doctors at Hadassah Hos-
pital, she is fully recovered, and
not just physically. She says that
despite the sometimes unbear-
able pain and long convalescence,
she is a better person for the ex-
perience.
"It helped me appreciate life in
a new way," she told me the oth-
er night.
"I've learned to love even the
little things, the routine things."
And she says her relationship
with her father, a storekeeper
from India, has vastly improved.
"We used to fight like cats and
dogs," she smiles, "but after I saw
how he took care of me every day
in the hospital, we are very close
now."
A medic herself, Dana spent
two days visiting victims of the
latest bombings in the hospital,
reassuring them and their fam-
ilies that there is hope for the fu-
ture. "I told them I know what
they're going through, and look
at me now, I'm laughing, living
life."
It shouldn't have to be that
way, young people with the spe-
cial wisdom of suffering offering
comfort to the next round of vic-
tims. But there is no bitterness
in Dana, only a fatalism born of
having been, in a sense, re-born.
And a deep commitment to affirm
life as a sign of faith.
"We must remember the dead
by making life go on," she says.
"You can't die with them. You
have to live every second."
For Dana and many Israelis,
living one's life to the fullest is the
greatest revenge against those
who wish you dead. ❑
New York Jewish Week
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