On a personal note, it was a bit of a shock, as I live on the outskirts of Rishon, a five minute drive from the bomb site. I was sitting on my couch reading when I heard first one ambulance, then two, then fire-engines, then I lost count of how many drove by. So I knew something was going on...in this region, when you hear so many sirens drive by, it usually only can mean one thing. I turned on the television to Channel 1...and sure enough, it was as I thought.
But hitting Rishon was more important on a symbolic level. The towns of Rishon L'Tsion, Nes-Tsiona and Rehovot are about 15 minutes south of Tel-Aviv, but a completely different world regarding personal sense of security. There has NEVER been any terrorist attack, before this, in the Rishon-Rehovot area. The people who live in the area, up till now, could psychologically distance themselves from the fear of terrorist attack.
When I am in Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem, (or Kfar Saba, Netanya, Hadera, Haifa, etc. for that matter), my radar is constantly on, even if only in the back of my mind. I try to ride public transport as little as possible, stay out of cafes, shopping centers and such, etc.
However, when I am near home, I feel as if I may as well be in some regular American suburb. I take local busses, go with friends to cafes, go shopping in the local shopping center, almost totally removing my defensive sensors. This attitude could be generalized to the local population as a whole. Just a couple of days ago, I went with a couple of friends to a cafe near here on a weekday, and it was packed full of people. You would not usually find the same thing in Tel-Aviv...and especially not in Jerusalem. Last week I went with my girlfriend to go eat some dinner near her work in Tel-Aviv, and though it was only 9:00 P.M. or so, many of the restraunts were already closed. After walking around 10 minutes we finally found an noodle-bar.
The shock of the attack taking place in Rishon was definitely noticable in the initial newscasts about the incident. They kept repeating how there has never been an attack in the Rishon-Rehovot area, and that there had been no intelligence reports whatsoever about an attack taking place near here. It was in fact, approx. 40 minutes after the attack that they even began really stating that it was likely to have been a suicide bombing and not just some sort of terrible accident, floor collapse, etc.
So, the fact that this bombing took place during Sharon's 'victory' meeting with Bush, after Sharon's government has been boasting how they have taken a big bite out of the 'Palestinian terrorist infrastructure', and in a location that was symbolically considered one of the last vestiges of a secure haven in Israel (not to mention that Rishon L'tsion means 'First to Zion' and is one of the first Zionist yishuvim, established in 1882, I think), this attack definitely makes the point that Israeli military actions against the Palestinian people has done nothing to make the Israeli people more secure -- the opposite is true, Sharon has made it so no Israeli can feel any security at all.
Anyway, it's 1:30 A.M. and I gonna try to get some sleep.
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