Our Heroes, and Theirs
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Jon Medved writes about his son Momo, who was at the scene of the Cafe Hillel bombing, and the contrast between Momo’s attempts to save lives in the awful aftermath of a terror attack, and the bloodthirsty celebrations that took place in Gaza that evening: Our heroes, and theirs.
Momo was crossing Emek Refaim, which is two blocks from our house, and they both heard the blast. Momo, 16, a trained paramedic with Magen David Adom, took out the plastic gloves he keeps in his school backpack and began to run the block to the cafe, to help with the injured. Yossi ran out the door with my wife, Jane, to go get Momo.
Momo was one of the first to arrive at the scene. As he described it later, it was a scene straight out of Dante, or Eli Wiesel. Victims were screaming and strewn about. A group of bystanders was attempting to put out a fire that was consuming a man. Amputated legs and arms were lying in pools of blood. A man’s head was in the middle of the street.
Momo acted according to the training he received this summer in a course designed to teach him how to handle these kinds of events. As soon as the lead ambulance arrived he was told whom to evacuate, and he helped carry the injured on stretchers. Within 10 minutes it was over, and the amazing Israeli emergency medical teams had again acted with alacrity and professionalism. Momo’s mother and brother found him covered with victims’ blood and walked him home. …
GETTING HOME and seeing your son’s clothes splattered with blood from a terror attack is a parental experience I will not forget. The relief of seeing Momo unhurt mixed with the pain, outrage and grief of an attack so close to home. Momo showered, and together we watched on TV the surreal scenes of our amazing and beautiful neighborhood hit, hurt and bleeding.
Momo was curled up with his dog, Lucy, hugging her and trying to regain some semblance of normalcy. A 16-year-old boy, having done his heroic work and seen things no one should ever see, tried to return to what was left of his adolescence.
We watched the scenes of jubilation in Gaza, with thousands of Palestinians taking to the streets in spontaneous celebration, delirious with joy at the “quality” attacks. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and others praised the “bravery” of the suicide bombers. Yassin mentioned the “great” Abu Shanab, “engineer” of dozens of Israeli deaths, whose own death had now been avenged.