A Break From Israel's Day-to-Day Realities

[pistoff democrat]

The kids held out chunks of carrot and the horses gobbled them down: The scene at the Equine Sanctuary of Ojai on Wednesday could have been a snapshot from a suburban school's field trip instead of an afternoon's respite from a world of bomb blasts and shattered limbs.

But the two dozen young Israelis leaning on the show ring's fence and patting the horses' noses were all too familiar with terror. Some had survived terrorist attacks. Others had family members who did not.

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A suicide bomber strode over to their table and blew himself up, killing Rachel, then 16, and two other teenagers, including Leor's best friend.

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Their experiences have a dark resonance for her. In 2002, as she was putting together the center's first tour for Israeli survivors, she received a phone call: Gunmen dressed as Israeli soldiers had sprayed bullets through a bus, killing her aunt, her cousin, her cousin's husband and the couple's 8-month-old baby.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vnvisit11dec11,1,6020169.story?coll=la-headlines-california