Two Terrorist Attacks Too Close to Home

Ra’anana, Israel, October 13, 2015.

Miriam and I were sitting on the patio of Roladin coffee shop on Ahuza Street in Ra’anana at 9 AM today eating pasties with our coffee as we often do. The sudden sirens of police cars racing by broke our relaxed conversation. People sitting at the small round tables near us shared their smartphone information that a terrorist attack was in progress three blocks up Ahuza Street.

The news reported that a 22-year-old terrorist from eastern Jerusalem  pulled out a knife stabbed a 32-year-old man who was waiting at the bus stop in front of Mizrachi-Tefachot Bank, our bank. Brave unarmed men standing at the bus stop disarmed the terrorist by knocking him to the ground and subdued him until the police arrived. The bleeding victim and beaten terrorist were taken by ambulance to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, Ra’anana’s neighboring city to its east.

Miriam and I had been at the scene of the terrorist attack at 9 AM yesterday to take cash out from the ATM machine on the street next to the bus stop.  We would have returned to the bank this morning to get a form we needed for US Income Tax if we were not late for our Tai Chi class.

We drove to our Ahuzat Bayit home at the corner of Ahuza Street and Yerusalayim Street only to read on the Internet, “In the second stabbing of the day in the city, which took place on the corner of Yerushalayim Street and Ahuza Street, three passersby were lightly wounded and a fourth victim was seriously wounded.”  The sirens of police vehicles and ambulances pierced the closed windows of our apartment.

Three of our grandchildren, Elianne 7, Avi 4 and Nadav 3 were born in Meir Hospital.  Their mother Carmit plans to come with them from Kfar Saba to swim in our residence’s pool at 4 PM today as she does every Tuesday.   The entire Ahuza Street, Ra’anana’s main street, is closed as police search for an accomplice.  We hope it is reopened by 4.

As I’m writing this, I read that police have caught a second Arab terrorist, the accomplice. The suspect was found while trying to escape from the scene. The terrorist works at Levenstein Hospital, which is located next to the site of the attack, diagonally across the street from our home.