At around 6:30 p.m. yesterday evening, my U.S. History teacher came into our classroom and said, "I just got the worst text a person could receive, my wife goes 'you were almost just a widow.'" Of course the six of us in the class were all confused and slightly nervous to hear why his wife would say such a thing. Turns out, she had gotten off only three stops before the Egged bus number 12 in Jerusalem exploded, which set the bus next to it that she had been on in flames. Luckily, no deaths have been reported, but there are a few in critical condition and a total of 21 people were injured. As expressed by the Jerusalem Post, this event "was an unnerving reminder of the terrorists attacks on buses during the intifada more than a decade ago" (Eisenbud). Despite the fact that everyone here on EIE is safe, this explosion was definitely a major scare for everyone who knows anyone living in the Jerusalem area. It also reminded everyone here about why the security restrictions are so strongly enforced by our staff, especially the rule about no public transportation.
Not only is it terrifying to hear about terrorist attacks occurring so close to our home, but it's also disappointing to be reminded that this conflict between Israelis and Palestinians doesn't seem to be getting any better, and is maybe even getting worse. Right now our Jewish History class is learning about Zionism and the modern State of Israel, so our discussions are always bringing us new insight on why these two peoples seem to never get along. More than once we have talked about the several solutions that have been proposed in order to create peace within Israel and a few of them seem like they could definitely work out, but as soon as we hear about an event like the one that occurred yesterday evening, my hope is lost. Multiple articles have explained what happened, and every one has different information because whether the event was an act of terrorism or not is still somewhat controversial.
The article I read was on The Jerusalem Post website at
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Initial-report-Jerusalem-bus-explodes-on-way-to-Hebron-451611
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