You have to understand Dimona. It’s a small city, only about 40,000 residents. It’s located very far from Israel’s main cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Things are slower there, more relaxed. There’s never been a terrorist attack in the city; most people wonder if people even know where Dimona is…and the residents like it that way.
On Monday, February 4th, that changed. Two suicide bombers attacked our southern city of Dimona. The first was dastardly enough as to plant himself in a populated area and set himself off. He was killed, though in Israel we don’t count him among the dead. His choice to die, to glorify death. His choice to love death, as Nasrallah says his people do. This bomber also killed an elderly woman who was doing nothing wrong; just using the bright and sunny morning after a week of rain and wintery weather, to do some shopping. Many others were wounded. People rushed to help them, as always happens here in Israel. Even a doctor who was there ran to help.
One of those on the ground, wounded from the initial bomb blast, it seemed, was a young Arab man. The doctor didn’t hesitate – that’s Israel. He quickly opened the young man’s jacket to see the nature of the wounds, and found a nasty surprise. The young man was not an innocent victim as the others laying on the ground were. He was a second terrorist bomber, hoping to wait a few minutes until another crowd gathered itself to help the wounded from the first attack. Then he, like his fellow murderer, would die – and kill as many Israelis, as many Jews as possible.
People screamed, people ran in all directions. “Run away,” people screamed. “There’s another bomb.” Into the mass hysteria, Police Chief Inpector Kobi Mor stepped forward and quickly eliminated the second terrorist. Initial reports spoke of three dead in this attack, but we don’t count the terrorists as human casualties.
May their names be forgotten, their memories be cursed. May God comfort the family of 73 year old Lyubov Razdolskaya, who was murdered and send a speedy recovery to the many injured, including Lyubov’s husband, who lies in critical condition in the hospital.
In the worst of our days, this is Israel.
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