A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Bus Bombing

It's reached the point where a bus bombing that "only" kills 10 and maims 50 others not only fails to shock us, but hardly affects most people's day.

Perhaps we've grown used to the mass murder of Jews, or maybe we feel helpless, with no sense of how to usefully respond.

Last night I read the latest issue of the Jewish Press, including Chezi Goldberg's piece, a compilation of advice to those contemplating making aliyah. In the last hour the names of eight of the victims were released. Among them is Chezi Goldberg. Friday's Jerusalem Post writes about Goldberg, who made aliyah from Flatbush, Brooklyn eight years ago.

Israel is a small country, and even as reaction to new terror is more muted, that terror affects many people more directly. In shul a few days after the bombing of the Jerusalem No. 2 bus in August, I happened to sit next to a family member of a New York woman who, with her infant daughter, was murdered. Many in both the U.S. and Israel knew David and Naava Applebaum - who were murdered in the September bombing of Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim Street - or their families. After the Haifa bombing in October, an Israeli friend of mine mentioned to me that a friend of his from the army was killed in that terror attack.

One thing that needs to be done is another mass rally. The April 2002 rally is the only major pro-Israel rally since the start of the Palestinian war against Israel, and while it successfully brought as many as 200,000 to the Capital, it was dominated by phony American politicians, relegated important speeches by terror victims or their survivors to the end, when most had left, and openly discouraged displays by those in attendance. It's time for a new and different kind of rally, preferably led by Rabbi Avi Weiss.
posted on 1/29/2004