Apathy

The past couple of weeks have seen some of the coldest weather in Israel in recent years. In these two weeks, seven (7) people have died as a result of hypothermia. Five (5) were homeless.

When I was a child, there were no homeless people in Israel. Did people die of hypothermia? Probably yes, old people alone at home. But each death was something the entire country heard about. It made the news. People talked about it the next morning.

Israel, January 2008. The country's 60th year. The deaths of homeless people are lumped together in a passing news flash, hastily reported to make way for more blah-blah about the Winograd report (as if the gist of this long overdue report is a mystery that requires endless speculation). I'm willing to bet that if you ask around tomorrow morning about the dead homeless, most people will not know what you're talking about.

Apathy. It's every man for himself in the Promised Land.