Jerusalem Post editor Bret Stephens has a moving, vivid and personal eyewitness account of the immediate aftermath of yesterday's suicide bomb attack. He says
I doubt many reporters have actually witnessed a suicide bombing up close – indeed, not many Israelis have. After today, I know there is a basic difference between what one sees in the first five or ten minutes and what one sees in the next 20 or 30 minutes. Most of the reporters who "covered" the bombing did not actually see the corpses on the ground. They do not know about the body convulsing in the bus. What they saw was a bus blown to smithereens, which is awful enough, while the rest was left to their imaginations. But if you haven't seen it before, you cannot imagine it. You don't have a clue.
I can see his point. But I'm not sure about the "don't have a clue" part. Solomon wasn't there. But he did see the video. And I think he has more than a clue.
You can watch a video of what the aftermath of such a bombing looks like here...if you've got the stomach for it. Pieces of bodies, shredded flesh - barely recognizable, hard to distinguish from so much shredded and bloodied cloth...is that a body part there on the ground? Or just a discarded backpack? Are those puddles blood, or just a bit of motor-oil?
A hand is there on the ground, shredded flesh trailing it like a horror-movie zombie's clothing - except it isn't cloth, it's flesh. Is this a Halloween prop someone forgot to clean up? No, it is real. A man is slumped over in his seat, struck dead on the spot. You can see his sneakers and bare leg...it's warm in Jerusalem, after all. Do the relatives recognize the pieces? Who's cell phone is that on the ground? Did the owner survive? Will he come looking for it, or was he talking on it nearby when the bomber performed for his people's accolades? Is that a child's school work blowing in the breeze?
I watch the cameraman walk slowly around the site and imagine that he looks down and sees he's standing on a piece of flesh. You wouldn't even know - so easy to mistake for a bit of debris blown out by the explosion. That's how bad it is.
But Stephens is ultimately right on the money.
Ww move too quickly from death events to news events. Nobody should see the scene I witnessed this morning, while the quiet still hung in the air. Then again, maybe everyone should see it, at least everyone in the news media. They should switch off their cameras and mobile phones and close their notepads. They should observe the silence, first of all by being silent.
