Wednesday, September 10, 2003

The Cafe Hillel Bombing

I was in Cafe Hillel at the end of May, when I was on my honeymoon. For the record, I hated the place. The food was not so good and the service bad and stupid (anyone who has been there understands why I say that). But it was very crowded. And we went there because it was the "in" place to go - especially in the in-est neighborhood in Jerusalem, Emek Refaim.

It doesn't get more ironic, and tragic, than the head of emergency medicine for the largest hospital in the largest Israeli city to be killed in an "ordinary" suicide bombing. Where else but Israel, right? And what the irony police won't allow in fiction is that his daughter - who died with him - was to be married the next day? This is where fiction cannot go.

Every time they commit an unpardonable tragedy, we say that the world cannot look at us with the same indifference or hatred. But we know that they will hate us forever - whether we're strong or pathetic. But I urge all of you to use the recent horror to be a litmus test for the media people. Maybe now some of them will tip into humanity.

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