Eli’s heart sunk and all the moisture evaporated from his
mouth.
Several people were boarding the bus, but only one of them
caught Eli’s eye.
He was dark skinned and Arab looking. He was wearing a very
loose coat in what was a fairly hot day and he was carrying a big gym bag. Add
to that the fact that this bus line went through the thriving, beating heart of
Tel-Aviv. The guy must be a terrorist.
Eli followed the man closely as he took up a seat a few rows
ahead. Eli sank in his seat, hiding behind the fat woman sitting in front of
him. The bomb must have some nails and other bits to cause extra damage. If he
stayed down the fat woman in front of him will take the brunt of the damage.
Eli was ashamed with the thought, but also comforted by it.
Then he sat up and scolded himself mentally. That was such a
racist and disgusting attitude. Would he have reacted like that if the man
looked Eastern European? He always considered himself leaning strongly to left
and despising any hints of bigotry and intolerance. Bigotry out of fear was
inexcusable. Most bigotry is the result of fearing the unknown.
Tough statistically speaking, a terrorist is much more
likely to be an Arab looking man wearing a coat and carrying a big bag. Numbers
cannot be racist. Sure there might be lots of factors in play behind the man’s
choice to become a terrorist: occupation, poverty, racism. The kind of
desperation Eli could never truly understand first hand.
Yet none of that really mattered. The man (assuming he was a
terrorist, of course) was going to blow himself up in a bus full of innocent
people, some of which were children. More importantly, he was going to blow up
Eli too. Would he change his mind if he knew Eli was a bleeding heart liberal?
Best case scenario, it was all in Eli’s head and nothing
would happen. But what if it was not? Should Eli do something? He contemplated
two scenarios.
In the first one he would approach the terrorist (man, not
terrorist) and start talking to him about peace and love. Maybe get him to
change his mind. Let him know that not all Jews hate him just because he is an
Arab.
The second scenario involved going the Jack Baur route and
kicking the man’s ass and disarming him.
Eli was not sure which scenario made him feel more uncomfortable.
Maybe he should just get off the bus at the next station,
hoping that it will not blow up before then.
The bus was slowing down, approaching the next stop.
No! He could not and would not get off. If it is a terrorist
and he blows up the bus Eli did nothing to stop it.
If he is not a terrorist…
A sudden explosion ended Eli’s line of thought and his life.
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