Netanya on a Monday Morning

Monday started off as a typical day at work. At 11:40 am my colleague says "did you hear? There as a bombing outside of the mall in Netanya 10 minutes ago."

In this country everything happens fast and news travels faster. There were already posting on the news internet sites and within 2 minutes everyone in our office was informed. For the next half an hour, everyone that came in said "did you hear about the pigua (terrorist attack)? And of course it was the first piece on the news every hour for the rest of the day. But within hours the site was cleaned up and by the following day the headlines went back to political elections. What people may remember is that 5 people died and over 40 wounded. But the numbers also fade quickly.

I remember when I used to live in the States and was always frustrated that I wasn't in Israel when an attack happened because I never really knew what was going on; I couldn't "feel it." Now that I do live here, I am surprised by how little I do feel.

I have been here for almost 5 months now and this is the first terrorist attack that has happened in that time span. The last time I was here for more than 2 weeks was in 2001, just after the outbreak of the intifada. Then, there were attacks almost weekly. The climate was different then and people were more on edge, but I think I was also more sensitive. Today I am wary of my surroundings and keep an eye out for suspicious objects, but I do not feel tension in the air and I don't think twice about getting on a bus.

Israel has been through so much tragedy that she has gotten good at cleaning up and moving on.