The 'Children's Attack'

The devastating bombing of Jerusalem Egged Bus 2 last week has been
immortalized as the "children's attack."

Two terrorist organizations - Hamas and Islamic Jihad - seem to be
jockeying for position as the responsible party. Both groups claim
culpability, and vow that they will not disarm. The U.S. will not force
them to do so.

On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, Arafat warned that "grave consequences"
(suicide bombings) would ensue if Israel continues to allow Jews to
visit the Temple site. It seems he is capable of making good on his
threat. The announcement was made Tuesday morning, August 19, that Jews
and Christians would be allowed back to the Temple site to pray. The
blast that ripped apart the lives of so many Jewish families occurred
Tuesday evening.

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Six children died at the hands of a Palestinian suicide bomber, and
another 40 children were wounded. The word "wounded", however, simply
does not do justice to the horrific injuries some of these children have
suffered.

Shmuel Zargara was just 11 months old when his tiny body was torn from
his mother's arms by the blast. On Wednesday, little Shmuel was placed
on an unfinished plywood board and carried to a small hole hewn out of a
hard, dry Jerusalem hillside. The explosion injured his father, Yaacov,
his mother, Nava, and 3 siblings. His only sibling to escape the terror
chose not to go on the outing to the Western Wall Tuesday evening.

Another mother injured in the suicide bombing knew only that her child
had not been found. Some of the dead have not yet been identified, so
she waits for the news that she fears will come.

Lilach Karadi, 22, the mother of a one-year-old, and eight months
pregnant with her second child was among the dead.

One-month-old Elchanon Cohen was found amid the rubble, the fate of his
parents unknown. But someone did ask for him...his distraught parents
had been taken to another hospital. Baby Elchanon was easily
identified...he was born with only one kidney.

In another hospital, Shira, not quite two-years old, suffered shrapnel
wounds to her face and left eye. (I wept as I read about little Shira.
I, too, have a daughter named Shira.) She shared an ICU room with Shmuel
Zargara's 7-year-old sister, Esther.

Another young Shmuel was injured at the hands of the bomber. When his
father, Avi Ben-Zion could not find him, he gave Shmuel up for dead, and
pulled his two younger brothers, Israel (8) and Yair (6), from the bus.
Shmuel had been blown through a window, and landed on top of some of
those who died. Mr. Ben-Zion asked over and over for God's forgiveness,
as he had to walk over several of the dead to get his sons safely off
the bus.

The question now remains: How do those who survived explain such
ferocious hatred to the smallest of the wounded? How does one explain
why a 29-year-old father of two, and the husband of a pregnant woman,
would strap on a pack of explosives and target a bus filled with
children?

In Mr. Ben-Zion's words, "...we'll cope with it together. They are
strong kids."

While Russia, the EU, the UN and the U.S. search the rubble for the
remains of their Road Map plan, friends and relatives search for more
precious remains.

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