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Everything worked like clockwork. He was smuggled
into Israel with his bomb packed vest as intact as himself in spite of the
exceedingly hot day. In due time, he made it to Tel-Aviv where he sat down at an
outdoor table in a little cafe on Dizengoff street and ordered himself a medium
latte (his English was actually quite good, I told you he was a very talented
lad.) To passersby he looked like just another slightly chubby tourist wearing a
fashionably oversized t-shirt. When the tables filled up with young customers,
he pulled on this little string that was attached to his vest and that was
lights-out for him, 7 young Israelis and a young Russian girl on her first (and
sadly last) visit to Israel. Another 15 suffered a variety of contusions,
lacerations, shock and the like.
Sadly enough, the Israeli authorities have had
lots of practice in dealing with these kinds of situations. So the police, the
Red Magen David ambulances, as well as a bevy of journalists showed up in almost
no time at all. They all did their respective jobs effectively and in the
shortest possible time, the wounded were gone to the hospital, the evidence was
gathered by the bomb squad experts and the journalists went back to their
respective desks to sort out the pictures, find the ones that were printable and
write their versions of what had just happened, to be reviewed by their
editor-in chief.
The last thing left was for the cleaning crews to
pick up the pieces and attempt to wash the blood off the walls and pavement.
This job belonged to the ZAKA, (an acronym of Zihuy
Korbanot Ason, literally: "Disaster Victim Identification")
an organization of volunteers who see to it that Jews receive a proper burial
(amongst other things). ZAKA was involved in helping forensic teams in Thailand,
India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean
earthquake where they were nicknamed "the team that sleeps with the dead"
because of their willingness to work around the clock.
Anyway, while picking up pieces of shredded
flesh, Moshi, one of the crew, came upon the |
