Learning Lessons
Author Cole outlines Israel's
effective response to terrorism.
Robert Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
W
hen an incident of ter-
rorism occurs within
Israel, a complex and
sophisticated response process
begins. Emergency workers flood
the scene. Under the direction of a
single incident
commander
managing a sit-
uation of con-
trolled chaos,
they briefly
treat only the
most severely
injured before
scooping and
Dr. Leonard Cole
running" all
the surviving
patients to the
hospital.
As the ambulances arrive, patients
are sorted and sent to the trauma
center, the operating rooms, the burn
center, ICU — wherever their medical
conditions best warrant — so that the
ER is not crushed with an onslaught
of patients.
Dr. Leonard Cole, author of the
recently published book, Terror: How
Israel Has Coped and What America
Can Learn, described this carefully
choreographed, well-rehearsed pro-
cedure to several local audiences last
week.
During a three-day local visit coor-
dinated by the Jewish Community
Relations Council, he addressed law
enforcement and homeland security
officials at an Anti-Defamation League
briefing, mental health profession-
als at Jewish Family Service, and
physicians and officials at William
Beaumont Hospital. Council also
scheduled interviews with several
media outlets, including the Detroit
Free Press, WXYZ-TV and WJR-AM.
Cole's visit was built around his
appearance at the JCC Jewish Book
Fair. He was co-sponsored by Council,
ADL and ZOA.
Cole's core message to all these
audiences was that Israel's painful
experience with terrorism has enabled
it to develop innovative and highly
((
effective ways to prepare for and
respond to terror incidents, techniques
that the U.S. has not yet adopted but
should. These include:
• Requiring, rather than just encour-
aging, all hospitals to adopt rigorous,
standardized, mass-casualty proce-
dures and conducting full-fledged,
realistic disaster drills several times
a year.
• Creating radio sys-
tems that allow various
emergency responders
— EMS, firefighters,
police, disaster response
coordinators — to
effectively communicate
with each other across
functional lines and
municipal boundaries.
• Providing physicians
with advanced training
in "terror medicine,' an emerging dis-
cipline for treating patients who come
to them with catastrophic combina-
tions of injuries rarely seen (so far) in
American ERs.
Israel also has learned many hard
but valuable lessons about what to do
after terror incidents. Recovery for
terrorism victims often requires not
only long-term physical rehabilita-
tion, but also ongoing mental-health
services to victims and their families.
Israel has broadly mobilized resourc-
es to provide both. Israelis know
medical staff, paramedics and men-
tal-health workers treating victims
also need support.
Rather than being depressing or
pessimistic, Cole's book and lectures
contain messages of hope. For exam-
ple, Israel has shown great resiliency
in preserving normal life in the face
of great danger and grief. It also has
shown how innovative thinking and
national commitment can mitigate the
damage wreaked by terrorists.
That example, and the specific les-
sons Israel has learned confronting
terror, can be instructive to the U.S.,
Cole said, if our leaders are willing to
learn. LI
Robert Cohen is executive director of the
Jewish Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.
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Downtown Birmingham
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