There was another homicide bombing in Israel today.
Personally, I was in danger of becoming numb about these attacks. I thought, yet another terrorist asshole with a bomb killing more innocent civilians. But something in the report stopped me in my tracks. The BBC Radio reporter on the scene said, “The street is littered with schoolbooks.” There were kids on that bus. There have been children killed in some of the other insane attacks but that one line sent me reeling.
I had turned the radio on after returning from walking my seven year old to school. Our progress had been slower than usual because he was excited that I’d promised to take him to the Scholastic Book Fair tonight. These are events we look forward to in our family. The Scholastic Book Club was an important part of my growing up. I made many life long friends through it: Wilbur, Charlotte, and Stuart Little. My son has already met new friends like Harry Potter there and I’m looking forward to introducing him to some of my old pals. So that one line hit me hard—the street is littered with schoolbooks.
Other father’s children won’t have the chance to grow up reading. There will be no book fairs for them, no Bar Mitzvahs, no pride in their achievements, no dancing with their daughters at their weddings, and no grandchildren to bounce on their knees.
I can offer no solutions to the problems of the Middle East and the idea that the only victims are among the dead and wounded is hardly new. All I know is that this must end and end now.
I had what most people would call an unhappy childhood. I try not to wear that on my sleeve. Besides, no matter how you grew up, there's always someone, somewhere, who had it worse.
Yet still, books were often the thing that made my life bearable, and brought me happiness when it was hard to find anything to be happy about. They also took me away from things that made me miserable. They also taught me almost everything I know.
If you want to see what the real war on terror looks like, go to Israel.
Shy of that, talk to Israelis.
Shy of that, read Israeli newspapers.
Shy of that, follow the news reports coming out of Israel.
In doing so, each of us will learn something different, but many of us will learn something important about ourselves, namely: What do you feel after you think you've gone numb?
I find it disturbing those terrorists targeted g school children in this latest terror bombing; but it does illustrate what Israel and the U.S. are facing. These terrorists hold no life sacred. They see children as reasonable targets.
It matters not whether terrorists see themselves as freedom fighters from Palestine, Islamic purists expelling America from the Middle East, or just Moslems fighting a jihad against the west. They support each other and receive succor from rogue regimes such as Iraq, Syria, and Libya and from rivals such as Saudi Arabia.
Israel and the United States face the same enemy. I see only one possible solution: we must stamp out Al Qaeda and governments supporting it. We will find our rivals in the region more willing to end support for terrorists after we first stamp out rogue regimes providing succor for Al Qaeda. I cannot see any end to this cycle of terror bombing until then.