"... but mine {the Arab terrorist} was released."

In the fifteen and a half years since being run over by an Arab terrorist, I've never had any "therapy" or even been part of a victims/survivors group.  But davka, yesterday, the day Gilad Shalit was released by the terrorists, returned to Israel and reunited with his family, I had a short conversation about our common pasts with another Arab terrorism survivor. 

Readers of this blog probably read that "my terrorist was killed on the spot."  It's a good feeling to know that he's totally "out of circulation."  I don't care if he got 70 virgins in his deserved hell or not, as long as he can't murder or maim or terrorize ever again.  My terrorist was an extremely dangerous one, because he didn't fit the usual criteria Israeli security forces predict will perpetrate terror attacks.  Apparently, he was very "ordinary" and had just gone shopping.  The police tried to prove it "an accident" and prosecute the young men who shot him dead, but the facts were too clear. 

My "therapy" post-terror attack has been to mount my own media campaign, like this blog.  But even before there were blogs, I went straight from Terem, the "first aid trauma center" where I had my foot x-rayed to the Jerusalem Post offices.  There I found David Bar Illan, who was then the editor in chief.

"David, I was there at the French Hill terror attack.  Yes, it was a terror attack, not an accident! Either give me a computer to write up what really happened or send someone to interview me."

I must have looked like a madwoman at the time.  My foot was swelling rapidly, and I was fueled by post-attack adrenalin.  David looked at me as if I was insane.

After we talked a bit, he sent a reporter to interview me, after making sure I was comfortably resting on his couch.  Once I got home, I sketched and faxed a diagram of the attack and sent it to the Jerusalem Post.  I also wrote an op-ed for them.  The Jerusalem Post, based on my information, also published a double-sized editorial condemning the police for trying to prove that the terror attack was an innocent accident.

Besides the Jerusalem Post op-ed, I was taxied to Jerusalem for a live interview on IBA TV News.  My "therapy" was media-based.

Yesterday at Yafiz, because of the lop-sided, badly negotiated Gilad Shalit exchange/deal I was discussing the attack with fellow workers when a friend came in.  He had survived a much more serious Arab terror attack, both in terms of the fatalities and his own injuries.  I asked him if it was strange/peculiar for me to refer to the Arab terrorist murderer as "my terrorist," when telling people that he had been killed on the spot.  He replied:

"No, not at all.  But mine was released.  I didn't check the list, but I was told."

What could I say?