december 9, 2005

Reflections of Netanya

Terror struck the Israeli city of Netanya once again this week, the scene of several terror attacks in the past few years. It didn’t last in the world’s news cycle very long. In fact, my impression was it didn’t last very long at all. Yet, the bombing in an Israeli coastal town can yield insight into the world we are living in today.

First of all, today five Israeli families are “sitting sheva.” That’s the Jewish custom of mourning seven (sheva) days for a loved one. Their names might be unfamiliar to you, but almost everyone could identify with their lives.

For example, Haim Amram (26) worked as a security guard at the shopping mall. His sister told a reporter, “He had great plans for the future. He was supposed to quit in two months and take his girlfriend to Thailand, where he was hoping to propose to her.”

Eliya Rozen (38) had a 5-year-old child who asked after the bombing, “Who will be my mother?” Ironically, her brother – an officer in the I.D.F. – worked on the security fence designed to keep suicide bombers out of the city.

Alexandra Zarnitzki (65) immigrated to Israel eight years ago from Ukraine. Her son called her when he heard about the bombing since he knew that she often went shopping there. She never answered the phone. Unanswered cell phones are often the eerie sound at the scene immediately after a bombing.

Keinan Tsuami (20) was the youngest in his family and a recent high school graduate, and Daniel Ggolani (45) owned a chain of clothing stores. Ordinary, regular lives but now they’re gone.

These are just snapshots of the victims of the Netanya bombing. On news reports they are usually more numbers than people ... “Five dead in a terror attack...” But they are housewives, brothers, students, friends, lovers and reflect the kind of lives most people live around the world. But now their families, their friends, and their lovers are mourning and grieving and remembering and fighting back the tears.

Lotfi Abu Saada died in the attack too. The 21-year-old from the village of Illar came to Netanya wearing his deadly apparel and then blew himself and these five with him into eternity.

The tragedy is that it’s likely Saada felt he earned his place in heaven as a martyr when he killed “the infidels”. It’s likely he thought his terror attack brought him paradise and virgins and bliss. The implication for the world is that many more like Saada believe these same things. Netanya may not have been Baghdad or New York or London or Madrid, but the same ideology that fueled Saada in Netanya fuels the bombers in those cities of the world. Saada was just a foot soldier in this war and tragically there are legions of Muslim men – and even women - to take his place and wage jihad against the infidel.

How we respond to this threat militarily, socially, and even spiritually will likely write our collective history for years to come.

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