Books Set in Israel

Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn, by Leonard A. Cole (2006)

I had the opportunity to meet the author, Leonard Cole in 2007, just at this book was about to be released. Cole is an expert in bioterrorism and terror medicine. In this book, he describes how terrorist attacks against Israel have affected the Israelis and how the Israelis have build in mechanisms to deal with the constant terror attacks against their country.

No country has experienced more terrorist attacks then Israel. As a result, Israel has developed innovative methods to respond to such attacks and threats of attacks. It is well known that the best trauma medicine in the world is being developed in Israeli hospitals.

Although there was a method to his madness, the author's narrative was not in chronological order, which made reading somewhat disorienting. Each chapter of the book discusses the effects of terror on different groups of people or events. There is a chapter on bus attacks, for instance, as well as families of terror attacks, and how doctors and nurses cope with treating terror victims. Israeli's, Cole notes, are in "survival" mode.

Still, Israel has, through necessity, developed well defined and structured protocol for dealing with disasters, whether from terrorist or through acts of nature. In contrast, the United States is totally unprepared to deal with a major disaster as evidenced by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Cole concludes that the Israeli experience with preparedness can offer valuable lessons to the United States.

I was struck while watching a recent episode of CSI, that, although in theory and on the television, Americans can coherently deal with disasters, in real life, there is no such methodology.

In writing this book, Cole also interviewed Palestinians, including those imprisoned handlers of suicide bombings. These people felt no remorse for their actions in killing innocent victims of their terror acts. Peace cannot come until all recognize and value each other.


Read: September 26, 2010.