A Twisted Reality that You Can Only Smile At

Last Thursday there was a minor terror attack close to the central bus station in Tel Aviv. I say minor because no one died (except the suicide bomber) and only a handful were critically injured. Of course it was big enough to cause havoc on the afternoon commute home and get people talking about past attacks in Tel Aviv.

Yesterday I was on my ride home in the shared taxi when the driver stopped to let someone on. A Russian immigrant approached the taxi and said “Are you going to Ra’anana?” (Ra’anana is town about 15 minutes from Tel Aviv). The driver said “I am going as far as the bus station and you can take another taxi from there.” This guy seemed to be confused by the words ‘central bus station’ so he asked in broken Hebrew “there was a terror attack there?” When the driver said yes, he understood where this taxi was headed and happily came aboard.

I couldn’t help but smirk at the irony that this man’s point of reference was an act of terror. Another one to add to my list of “Only in Israel.”