It is impossible for me to look at images of the double-decker bus blown apart in last week\’s terror attacks in London and not think of Bus No. 37.\n\nBus No. 37 was the mangled hulk of an Israeli bus that activist brothers Ed and Bernie Massey sent on a tour in November 2003, as part of traveling exhibit on terror.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev was asked: \”What is the right spiritual path, that of sorrow or that of joy?\”
He replied: \”There are two kinds of sorrow and two kinds of joy. When a man broods over the misfortunes that have come upon him, that is a bad kind of sorrow. But the grief that comes when a man knows what he has lost is honest and good. The same is true of joy. One who chases empty pleasures is a fool. But one who is truly joyful is like a man who is rebuilding his house after a fire. He feels his need deep in his soul, and with each stone that is laid, his heart rejoices.\”
The following column was written by Marla Bennett, the San Diego woman who was one of the seven victims of the July 31 terrorist attack at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
I\’ve been living in Israel for over a year and a half now, and my favorite thing to do here is go to the grocery store.
Washington\’s official response to the killings of five Americans at Hebrew University can be summed up largely in a word: words.
Flags of the United States and Israel draped the simple pine coffin of Marla Bennett, the 24-year-old student laid to rest on Monday, at a service that emphasized Jewish solidarity in the face of terrorism.
Seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars will pay for three medical trauma units at Tel Aviv\’s Sourasky Medical Center, which has treated 500 casualties of terrorist attacks, including those from the Passover massacre in Netanya. One-million dollars buys bulletproof vests for 1,000 volunteer civil guards, who protect their own neighborhoods and often are the first on the scene of a terrorist attack.
Danny, 10, can recite the Five Pillars of Islam: faith, prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage.
Jeremy, 12, understands the difference between Predator armed drones and Global Hawk surveillance drones; between 500-pound \”dumb\” gravity bombs and 2,000-pound \”smart\” precision-guided bombs.
Gabe, 14, knows that Pastun and Dari are the spoken languages of Afghanistan while Pastuns, Uzbeks and Tajiks make up the main ethnic groups.
Zack, 18, can locate most of the \”stans\” — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Since Sept. 11, on a practical and comprehensible level, my sons have learned about the religion of Islam, the military capability of the United States, the ethnicity of Afghanistan and the geography of Central Asia.
There is a new rhythm to the terror attacks against Israelis: They are coming in one-two punches, leaving the country staggering.
The crowd that turned out in a driving rain last Sunday evening to hear experts discuss the terrorist threat was testament to at least one ongoing fact of life since Sept. 11: we\’re still scared.
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