South African\u00a0oleh\u00a0Jonathan Zausmer\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0planning\u00a0on\u00a0doing\u00a0much to celebrate\u00a0his birthday on Sunday,\u00a07\u00a0June, but a higher power showed him that he\u00a0still\u00a0has a lot\u00a0of living to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u00a0miraculously avoided a terrorist attack on the day he turned 72.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That morning, he and his wife,\u00a0Janice,\u00a0decided to head to nearby\u00a0Ra\u2019anana\u00a0for coffee, stopping to fill up with petrol on the way out of their hometown, Kochav Yair.\u00a0They then\u00a0continued on\u00a0their way. Minutes later, they heard that a terrorist had opened fire at the\u00a0very\u00a0petrol\u00a0station\u00a0they had just\u00a0left,\u00a0and\u00a0realised that where they had been standing would have put them in the exact line of fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe dodged a bullet, literally,\u201d\u00a0Zausmer\u00a0told the\u00a0SA Jewish Report\u00a0in his strong South African accent. \u201cLooking at where the terrorist stood, we would have\u00a0been\u00a0exposed\u00a0to his shots. When we heard about it, we\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0believe it.\u00a0We were just\u00a0very lucky.\u00a0In the 40 years since Kochav Yair was\u00a0established, nothing like this has happened before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The drive-by shooting attack\u00a0began at Kochav Yair and continued to Tzur Yitzhak, Tzur Natan, and\u00a0Sal\u2019it. The terrorist\u00a0killed Master\u00a0Sergeant\u00a0Haim Kalomiti, 55, a reservist soldier from Tzur Natan who was a member of the community\u2019s civil\u00a0defence\u00a0squad.\u00a0Five other people\u00a0were wounded before\u00a0security forces\u00a0shot the\u00a0gunman.\u00a0Police later arrested a second man accused of involvement in the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
South African\u00a0oleh\u00a0Dave\u00a0Kaplan\u00a0spoke to the\u00a0SA Jewish Report\u00a0from his home in nearby Kfar Saba\u00a0while the attack was\u00a0still\u00a0unfolding. He said his daughter was\u00a0\u201clocked down\u201d\u00a0in\u00a0her\u00a0home in Tzur\u00a0Yitzhak\u00a0while security forces worked to confront the terrorist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was suddenly watching Israel news on\u00a0Channel 12\u00a0not as a typical news watcher but as a horrified parent and grandparent, knowing our daughter Dana and our three precious grandkids were under lockdown and a terrorist, who had already injured five and killed one,\u00a0was roaming the streets all too familiar to me,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw the streets that we walk\u00a0were\u00a0suddenly the scene of\u00a0a manhunt\u00a0for\u00a0a killer with a submachinegun looking to kill Jews\u00a0\u2012\u00a0any Jews. It could be our loved ones.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He and his wife,\u00a0Hilary,\u00a0\u201cwanted to dash out there, but that was impossible with the lockdown,\u00a0so we kept in touch over the phone until it was safe\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His\u00a0daughter, Dana Dvir, says\u00a0it was excruciating being locked down at home without her children, knowing they were locked down at their school and kindergarten. \u201cThey were in the\u00a0mamad\u00a0[safe room] for two hours,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The situation was made even more difficult because her husband is up north in the army. Eventually,\u00a0she was allowed to collect her children. \u201cI ran out to fetch them all\u00a0\u2026 my daughter was supposed to finish school at 12:45, but I could only fetch her at 14:20. I never imagined something like this happening here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That evening,\u00a0Zausmer\u00a0visited his friend Jonathan Schwartz, another South African\u00a0oleh\u00a0who has lived in nearby Tzur Yigal for about\u00a030 years. \u201cThe attack definitely was too\u00a0close to home and too close\u00a0for comfort,\u201d says Schwartz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u00a0says\u00a0that the commercial area in which the terrorist started\u00a0his attack\u00a0\u201cis\u00a0generally a\u00a0microcosm of cooperation between residents of Kochav Yair, Tzur Yigal,\u00a0and residents of the neighbouring\u00a0Arab\u00a0towns of Tira, Tayibe,\u00a0and\u00a0Kalanswa. Many of the staff in the local shops are Israeli Arabs, and customers\u00a0are\u00a0a happy mix of Jews and Arabs.\u00a0Despite this incident,\u00a0I will continue to shop in Tira.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kochav Yair is a quiet suburban town close to the Green Line and in between\u00a0these\u00a0three Arab towns, known as \u201cthe triangle\u201d.\u00a0\u201cWe often go into Tira\u00a0to do shopping,\u201d says Zausmer. \u201cMy electrician and plumber come from there. Most people\u00a0just\u00a0want to get on with their lives \u2013 no one wants a civil war in Israel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0attacker came from\u00a0Tayibe, north of Kochav Yair.\u00a0Hamas praised the attack, but\u00a0the mayor of\u00a0Tayibe\u00a0immediately\u00a0condemned\u00a0it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mayor Yahya Haj Yahya, along with the city council, emphasised\u00a0that he\u00a0firmly\u00a0rejects\u00a0all violence,\u00a0and reaffirmed the city\u2019s commitment to peace and coexistence. He also stressed that the actions of the individual attacker do not\u00a0represent\u00a0the broader Arab sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zausmer\u00a0says\u00a0that all Kochav Yair residents stop at that\u00a0petrol\u00a0station regularly, which is why the attack has hit so close to home. Furthermore, there are many South African\u00a0olim\u00a0in the area, as aliya organisation\u00a0Telfed\u00a0played a key role in\u00a0establishing\u00a0the town. South Africans\u00a0were drawn to it because it offered houses as opposed to apartments, but\u00a0is\u00a0still in\u00a0a central area,\u00a010\u00a0minutes from\u00a0the city of\u00a0Kfar Saba.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because\u00a0Kochav Yair is close to the\u00a0Green Line, the possibility has always existed that a terrorist would attack from the\u00a0West Bank. The fact that the\u00a0attacker\u00a0came from within Israel surprised and saddened\u00a0Zausmer\u00a0and other\u00a0olim, but they\u00a0believe\u00a0it\u00a0was\u00a0a \u201conce-off\u201d event, and\u00a0say\u00a0they still feel extremely safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dave Bloom, who is originally from Harare,\u00a0also lives in Kochav Yair and says the South African presence in the town can be epitomised by the fact that\u00a0\u201cthree of my wife\u2019s classmates from\u00a0primary\u00a0school in Cape Town now live in Kochav Yair\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bloom\u2019s wife,\u00a0Gail,\u00a0was also minutes away from the\u00a0petrol\u00a0station when the attack happened, and\u00a0she quickly\u00a0turned\u00a0around and headed\u00a0home.\u00a0\u201cI pull up my car there every few days,\u201d says Bloom, as the\u00a0petrol\u00a0station has shops, a pharmacy,\u00a0and restaurants around it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He agrees\u00a0that the area\u00a0exemplifies\u00a0Israel\u2019s quiet diversity. \u201cMy cardiologist and eye doctor are from\u00a0Tira,\u00a0and I teach English voluntarily there\u00a0once a week,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat is most upsetting is that such an incident can put these good relations at risk.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0only a small minority that wants to undermine the vast majority who want to live peaceful lives.\u00a0The problem is that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0very hard\u00a0to prevent a \u2018lone\u00a0wolf\u2019\u00a0attack.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Telfed\u00a0Chief\u00a0Executive Dorron Kline says there are approximately 157 South Africans adults in Kochav Yair today, and 19 in nearby Tzur\u00a0Yitzhak\u00a0and Tzur Natan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kline says that while no South African\u00a0olim\u00a0were\u00a0wounded\u00a0or killed in the attack, \u201cone of the victims shot in the shoulder and moderately wounded is the brother-in-law of one of our staff members. He is Israeli.\u201d Footage of this man being shot at the\u00a0petrol\u00a0station has circulated online.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The day after the attack, Kaplan spent the morning with his\u00a0grandchildren,\u00a0who had been locked down at school during the attack. \u201cWe played\u00a0games as if nothing had happened. \u201cSuch is \u2018normal\u2019 life in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African\u00a0oleh\u00a0Jonathan Zausmer\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0planning\u00a0on\u00a0doing\u00a0much to celebrate\u00a0his birthday on Sunday,\u00a07\u00a0June, but a higher power showed him that he\u00a0still\u00a0has a lot\u00a0of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16380,85,46,113734,43,4031],"class_list":["post-488192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-birthday","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-miracle","tag-news","tag-terror-attack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}