ability to strike anywhere at any time, has created among Israelis a sense of living a kind of collective Russian roulette. Many avoid taking buses or going to movies, shopping malls, any crowded place. The terrorists’ aim is to force Israelis to place armed guards at kindergartens, to search bags at the entrance to movie theaters, to be afraid of sitting in their favorite cafes or restaurants. Crowded pedestrian malls, bar mitzvah celebrations, pool halls, foreign workers, public transport—these have been very popular terror targets. Islamic terrorism has tried to demolish Israel’s right to exist in its ordinary activities.
Aharon Barak, as chief justice, made this point in the summer of 2005 when he opened his judgment on a petition brought by Palestinians who were appealing the legality of the separation fence: “Most of the terrorist attacks were directed toward civilians. They struck at men and at women; at the elderly and at infants. Entire families lost their loved ones. The attacks were designed to take human life. They were designed to sow fear and panic. They were meant to obstruct the daily life of the citizens of Israel. Terrorism has turned into a strategic threat. Terrorist attacks are committed inside of Israel and in the area [Judea, Samaria, and Gaza]. They occur everywhere, including public transportation, shopping centers and markets, coffee houses, and inside of houses and communities.”
Every bomb is followed by a flurry of cell phone calls: “Are you all right?” Emergency workers are often traumatized and need counseling. Some unconscious children have been listed as “anonymous” because they didn’t have identification cards and the doctors were searching for their parents. For all those killed, there are many, many more left alive but burned, scarred, blinded, hearing-impaired, or missing limbs. Many sustain fractures, vascular injuries, paralysis, or brain damage. Magen David Adom, the Red Star of David, has been putting aside extra blood. Hospitals have purchased walkie-talkies, ventilators, outdoor showers, and all sorts of antibiotics.
During the Second Intifada, Israeli hospitals continued to provide medical care to Palestinian patients without interruption, although in the first year of terrorism, seventy-one Israeli ambulances that arrived to treat the injured in areas of confrontation were attacked and damaged by terrorists. The number of Gaza Palestinians being treated for medical conditions of all sorts in Israel’s hospitals has increased significantly, despite the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip and the barrage of rocket attacks. In 2007, according to an Israeli report published on January 13, 2008, more than seven thousand Palestinians were able to travel to hospitals in Israel and in the West Bank—an increase of 50 percent over the figure for 2006. Close to eight thousand more Palestinians were allowed to accompany them. Israeli officials commented that Israel took great risks in encouraging such visits, which on numerous occasions had been abused by Palestinians to attempt terrorist attacks on Israeli hospitals or other targets. Israeli medical cooperation with the Palestinians has resulted in the total eradication of tetanus and measles from the Palestinian population, a dramatically reduced death rate among Palestinian infants, training projects for Palestinian doctors in cardiac and brain surgery, and assistance in opening intensive care units.
Dr. Mario Goldin, who had immigrated from Argentina, treated dozens of terror victims and helped them get back to their lives again. His objective in life was to reduce “the pain of those who suffer.” He was considered a pioneer in pain management and “every patient’s best friend,” according to his coworkers. A bomb killed Dr. Goldin while he was waiting for the bus, planning to visit a few shut-ins. He had treated many Arabs and Palestinians at the Beit Levinstein Rehabilitation Hospital, some of them seriously injured in terror attacks. “He treated everybody equally,” said Ya’akov Hart, the director of Beit Levinstein. “A patient recently sent me a letter saying that Dr. Goldin had treated his pain, which was so bad that he couldn’t walk for six months. He went to Dr. Goldin for treatment and he was up on his feet again. He asked me to thank Mario, who he said had called him every three days to see how he was feeling. He was very caring and humane, charming, and dedicated. His death is a terrible loss.” Dr. Goldin was one of many doctors killed by terrorist bombs.
The terrorist attacks in Israel have produced images that never go away. When the smoke cleared from the explosion on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, Jacob Heyn saw a heart, still beating, lying on the sidewalk amid the shattered glass. “There was no body, just a heart beating. I didn’t think such a thing could happen. But I saw it and others saw it,” said Heyn, eighty-seven years old. He had been standing with his son in front of a bookstore that his family owns, filled with displays of children’s books. It was a normal day on a busy street. Bret Stephens, then editor of the Jerusalem Post, called it “the amazing and horrifying quiet—that was the quiet of ten murdered souls.”
Seconds after a suicide bomber killed a woman and her granddaughter, Danit Margolinski, standing with her five-year-old son at a video arcade next door, sprinted to offer help. Bleeding and broken bodies lay everywhere, as screaming women protected shrieking babies. Margolinski scooped up one baby from a mother sprawled on the floor and swaddled her in her shirt. Margolinski remained frozen on the spot, as if she were in a coma. “Slowly, I will become myself again, but the problem is: How will I forget the babies crying, and the women screaming, ‘Save me. Save me!’?”
Added to the physical injury is mental trauma, which some experts say is particularly acute in the case of suicide attacks. Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety affect not only the victims of the attacks, but all of Israeli society. There has been a significant increase in antidepressant and sedative use by the general public. Studies after the 1995 bombing that devastated a federal office building in Oklahoma City found that 16 percent of Americans living within a hundred-mile radius of the blast suffered from post-traumatic disorder, including acute stress, flashbacks, or anxious reactions to loud bangs. In Israel, the number of people who find themselves in similar circumstances is enormous. According to Dr. Danny Brom, director of the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, thousands of Israelis are affected by difficulty sleeping, nightmares, anxiety, fear of leaving home, light or severe depression, chronic headaches and terrible flashbacks.
In 2004, one report estimated that 40 percent of the population in Jerusalem have some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder. Some cannot sleep because the smell of burned flesh will not leave them. More than half of those surveyed said they felt a “loss of control on factors that influence” their lives due to the violence. There are very few studies examining the psychological impact of mass terrorism in Israel. One is an extraordinary document by Marie-Thérèse Feuerstein, Burning Flowers, Burning Dreams: Consequences of Suicide Bombings on Civilians in Israel, 2000-2005. It is the culmination of a research project involving specialists in trauma and bereavement counseling, as well as frontline health professionals at the cutting edge of emergency medicine in Israel following terrorist attacks.
Among the hundreds of people disabled by terrorism, there are many stories of redemption that bear witness to the victory of Israel. One is the story of Tomer Gamadani, a police officer who suffered from serious burns caused by a terrorist bombing. After months of struggling heroically to overcome pain and despair, Tomer married the love of his life. “He was completely burned,” said Irit, his wife. “We had already set the date of our wedding, but I saw death nearby, and I prayed that Tomer would not die.” She asked Tomer, “What will we do about the wedding?” He embraced his fiancée and promised her, “We will get married, Irit.” And they did.
Eyal Neufeld was injured in an attack in Meron. After being in a coma for two months, he woke up blind and deaf, not knowing where he was. “Angry?” he said. “It was a miracle. I was sitting next to the terrorist, and I survived.” Nine people were killed in the attack. Eyal’s lungs were damaged, his spleen had to be removed, and his jaw, eye sockets, and nose were broken. His skull was fractured in two places, two of the vertebrae in his neck were collapsed, and at first it was thought that he would be paralyzed. His disabled right hand has been operated on dozens of times. The terrorists took away his eyesight, but it took him only two weeks to learn to read Braille and to get around with a cane. As soon as his hearing aid was put in, he was able to hear again.
“There are difficult times,” Eyal acknowledges. “There is this darkness that drives me crazy twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A total obscurity—an unmoving black space, without end, without form, without color. I