From: Yossi Oren <lioren1@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il>
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: FTSD: Alexei
Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 22:33:56 +0200
Organization: Diverse Alarums
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <366452AD.F971DB32@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il>
Reply-To: lioren1@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il
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BTW, this is real.  The bus with the kids, my visit, everything.  You can
find a URL for it below. [1]
--
  We are driving to the port city of Haifa, to visit the Neykov family.
Their son is a hero - "geroi" in Russian.  I'm in full uniform.

  In the Gaza strip, in the south-west of the country, school-buses are
reinforced with steel and escorted by a military jeep.  One day a
car with a bomb in it approached such a pair, siding up to
the bus.  The driver of the jeep crashed into the car as it exploded.
None of the children were hurt.  One of the soldiers was killed.

  A narrow flight of stairs leads up.  The Neykov family - father 
and mother.  Their younger son is with friends in his room.
They are new immigrants from Ukraine.  Alexei came here first, alone.
They arrived less than one year ago.  A relative who speaks Russian and
Hebrew sits by the mother, a solemn echo to whatever we say.  
  The parents sit on a low bed, plastic chairs for us.  A color print of
Alexei was hung on an unpainted wall.  A tall candle in a glass will
keep on burning for seven days, the week of lament.  A slight smell of
garlic.

  The initial news reports talked about two casualties.  One was the 
soldier, one was the suicide bomber.  Love and hate.  
The bomber is a shahid - a saint.  He expects to go to heaven, finding
there seventy-three girls whose virginity is perpetually renewed.

  Mr. Neykov, wearing black, has deep-set eyes.  Proud and sad, using
what Hebrew he knows to describe Alexei.  Mrs. Neykov sits next to
her son, looking down.  She seems like someone who liked to smile.
Now they all have to live in big, complicated words -- Man; War; Duty.
42 Israeli kids from a bus send them letters and drawings.

  Two days later, a man of 40 stabbed a 19-year-old to death for 
speaking Russian next to him.  The kid's brother had his ear cut off.

  Driving back home.  The local elections are coming soon.  Many
similar faces, stuck on walls, smile to us.

Yossioren.
[1] http://www.abcnews.com/wire/World/Reuters19981029_11251.html