A grandfather’s cry of pain after school bus attack

 

By Dov Hartuv 

KIBBUTZ NAHAL OZ — I am furious and frustrated. On Thursday afternoon (April 7) the yellow regional school bus drove in to the kibbutz and as usual discharged its load of boisterous school kids. The school day had ended and the Pesah holidays were on hand. The bus did an about turn and left the gates of the kibbutz. As it entered the Gaza- Beersheba road it was hit from behind by an anti tank mortar It was a direct hit which was aimed at the bus.

Only the driver, a member of Kibbutz Ruhama and his young passenger, the son of a visiting friend were in the bus. The boy who was sitting in the back of the bus was badly injured and is in a critical state in hospital. Zion, the driver, came out unhurt but suffering from shock.

Every school day my almost 13 year old grandson Mor and his friends travel to and from school in this bus – yellow painted buses are internationally known as school buses so this   incident was planned and was no “accident.”

When will all this strife and terror end?  Since 2001 when the first Kasam rocket fell in Nahal Oz, the area surrounding the Gaza Strip has been under constant barrarge. Sometimes there is an hiatus but the threat is constantly there and that makes life intolerable. Now the Hamas have newer weapons and cities in a wider range are also being targeted.

When will this spiraling  escalating state of affairs end? – only when a bus  full of kids is hit!!

Both sides use “eye for an eye” tactics. Rationally everyone knows this is not the answer. Powerwise we are much stronger but they have longer staying power. It’s a question of attitude  toward life and on those terms we don’t understand one another. Their philosophy  is completely different to that of ours and our moral standards are totally at odds. The basic problem is that we don’t speak the same “language” .

 The captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is being held  for over 5 years incomunicando somewhere in Gaza – his parents and the majority of the Israeli public are doing their utmost to have him released – but to no avail. For  political, tactical and security reasons that are beyond the understanding of the ordinary man in the street, our political leaders do not have the strength to pay the exhorbitant price to have him released. What they don’t appreciate is that the Israeli citizen – although over 7 million strong, still behaves and thinks in the terms of a “family.” When John Mc Cain was a prisoner of war for 7 years in Vietnam, the entire United Sstates wasn’t up in arms

What both sides desperately need is not more arms nor more deaths but leaders of the calibre of Roosevelt, Churchill and Ben Gurion. Only with far seeing statesmen of that calibre on both sides will a feasible peace be forged.

I would dearly love to see the leaders of  Israel and the Palestinians locked in a room and only allowed to leave when “white smoke” is seen in the sky.

In the meantime we have to grit our teethe and try and ride out the storm.

Try and tell that to Gilad Shalit’s parents or my grandson!

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Hartuv is a freelance writer based in Nahal Oz, Israel. part of Jewish Federation of San Diego’s sister region of Sha’ar Hanegev.   He may be contacted at dov.hartuv@sdjewishworld.com