Tel Aviv terror attack
Photo: Avi Cohen
We'll pay the price
Terror has a high cost, but we pay it to preserve freedom
Both Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have been credited with saying variations on the phrase, "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." They knew what they were talking about.
Passover Attack
Avi Cohen
Passover terror attack: Huge explosion rattles shawarma stand at old central bus station area in southern Tel Aviv; scores wounded. Suicide bomber identified as Sami Salim Khamad, an Islamic Jihad member
They probably didn't imagine just how true their words would ring more than 200 years later.
A random walk through news and government websites in the last few days shows just how right they were.
Over the weekend, just before a suicide bomber's horrific attack claimed the lives of nine near a Tel Aviv falafel stand, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah, safely ensconced in Syria, was quoted as saying the group was making "nonstop efforts" to send suicide bombers from the West Bank.
His comments came on the heels of the latest rantinga by the madman of Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said Israel was "heading towards annihilation" and would be "annihilated by one storm."
Last week, as Pesach was beginning, IDF forces discovered a Palestinian explosives lab near Jenin in the West Bank, where they found an explosive belt - the kind used in Monday's terror attack - and several dozen kilograms of explosives.
Never-ending high alert
Elsewhere, on the eve of Pesach, the IDF found and killed two armed gunman who were attempting to infiltrate through the security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The two were found with two Kalashnikov rifles, six ammunition clips, four hand grenades, a pair of wire cutters and a communications device, according to the IDF Web site.
There have been more arrests of wanted terrorists and collections of their deadly paraphernalia in the days since.
A giant infrastructure of soldiers, young and old, male and female, as well as police and other security forces, are required to maintain this level of high alert. It's costly, it's wearing and it's never-ending. It goes on 24/7 in a country that does its best to shut down for Shabbat.
For all of that effort, Monday's terror attack at the Tel Aviv falafel stand occurred anyway. In concentric circles of impact, like a rock hitting a pond, Monday's direct price was: nine dead, dozens injured, hundreds shocked, and thousands disrupted on highways for several hours.
Let's not forget the other effects as they ripple through the echo chamber of the global media and the diplomatic world: condemnations of varying degrees by Western leaders, wreath-laying pilgrimages by guilt-stricken Europeans, "celebrations" in some Arab circles, declarations of support from Arab dictators and plutocrats, and more maniacal rantings from the mad mullahs of Iran.
And let's not blind ourselves to the costs to those not directly affected: we are dehumanized, desensitized and demoralized.
However, we are not dehumanized or desensitized to the point that our enemies would wish. The Palestinian, Iranian and Arab leaders of fanatical, death-obsessed and murderous "political" movements like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades wish we would become as heartless as they.
Disgust, anger and bitterness
They want us to stop valuing life the way we do, and to stop agonizing over our responses to such deadly acts as Monday's suicide bombing. They don't want us to deliver nuanced, carefully weighed "pinpoint" military strikes. Their only hope is that we become as indiscriminate and careless as they are in their attacks, so that global opinion will shift back toward their role as hapless victims of the Israeli military machine.
We are not demoralized the way they want. We must admit that their tactics occasionally limit our freedom. We restrict our movements, we mourn, we cry, we still shudder with horror and disbelief. And then, with few exceptions, after appropriate but brief pauses for reflection, mourning and sadness, we pick ourselves up and keep going.
Monday's attack brought back with a shudder the feelings of disgust, anger and bitterness we felt four years ago after the horrific 2002 Seder bombing in Netanya, which claimed 30 lives.
But it also makes the words of last week's Pesach Seder, which reminds us of the need to remember that freedom is our greatest gift. It cannot and will not be taken away from us.
Alan Abbey is the Founding Editor of Ynetnews. His website is www.abbeycontent.com, and his email is alan@abbeycontent.com
