BYE BYE GAZA - Barry Chamish

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two minutes. He added that he had been on the scene later
that morning and had seen Raful's car. The crowd was silent
as he examined the evidence and I was tense, not knowing if
my conclusions would be borne out or not. He had the
advantage by his respected position.
After the two minutes passed, Mr. Shamir noted that, "The
picture is an illusion. It shows the quiet side of the harbor.
But Raful drove on a breakwater and you don't see that the
other side is exposed to the waves. That's where the killer
wave smashed the car and swept him into the water. Those
kinds of waves are rare, but once a year we get one of them
which bypasses the breakwaters and are strong enough to
push a tractor in the water. Raful fell into the quiet side of the
breakwater and probably hit his head, went unconscious and
drowned."
It looked like I was sunk. My conclusions were about to be
exposed as wrong, or worse, they could be viewed as
fraudulent. So, nervously, I fought back. I showed him the
dents on the driver's side of the car which looked like a very
sharp object caused them. I queried, "You don't believe a
wave caused these do you?"
Calmly, Mr. Shamir replied, "No, of course not. But Raful was
a terrible driver and got into scrapes all the time. These were
probably there before the wave hit."
It was something I hadn't considered. It then occurred to me;
Shamir wasn't hesitating. He had immediate answers ready.
He had prepared for this debate. I was at a much worse
disadvantage than I thought. I had to think fast. I showed him
the floor of the road and said, "The car is smashed. All the
windows are shattered. Why aren't there glass shards and
debris next to the car?"
He replied, "When I got there, there was glass everywhere."