Saluting our older heroes
Op-ed: Two heroes of southern terror attack remind us of older generation's contribution
As often happens in our mad, agonizing state, we needed a terrible, deadly incident in order to turn a sympathetic look at good people who do an excellent job. And what do you know, two of the southern terror attack heroes, police sniper Pascal Avrahami, may he rest in peace, and bus driver Benny Bilevsky, are older Israelis.
The 49-year-old Avrahami, a mythological fighter and sniper (as we only discovered after his death) in YAMAM, the police's elite anti-terror unit, sought contact with the enemy, as he usually did, and was shot to death. In previous operations he was decorated twice; during his funeral, his commander characterized him as the "YAMAM'S number one fighter." According to his associates, commanders and subordinates, Avrahami used to leave younger police officers behind during training sessions; they only saw his back.
Meanwhile, describing the 60-year-old Bilevsky's conduct on Route 392 as "exemplary" would not do him justice. The experienced, level-headed driver continued to drive despite the heavy fire directed at his bus, until he brought his passengers to safe haven and handed over the wounded to medical teams.
Bilevsky's explanation for his actions was both simple and amazing: "Two bullets shattered the windshield next to me, passed right above my head and hit above me. I'm veteran enough so I realized I must keep driving and that I must not stop, to avoid worse harm to everyone."
Avrahami and Bilevsky are not alone. Not only in the line of fire, Israelis in their forties, fifties and sixties give everything they have, excel at work, and contribute to the economy and society with their abilities, skill and wealth of experience. Yet given the blind, indifferent Israeli reality we fail to notice it. "Old" employees are being cast away too easily midway through life, later facing difficulties in finding their way back to the world of work.
What we are seeing is a modern-day version of the Eskimo tradition of sending elders away to an iceberg. Here it happens in the scorching heat, starting at the age of 40-something. And we haven't said a thing yet about the criminal neglect of our elderly.
Without taking away anything from the justified praise lavished on younger Israelis (we must admit that most of those who pay the price on the battlefield are young,) we can also criticize and change the regrettable, foolish trend of getting rid of older people throughout our economy. As opposed to what we are told constantly, the world may not belong to the young; or at least not only to them.
Think about it, kids.
