Monday's vehicular attack in Jerusalem. Palestinian terror will continue
Photo: Hillel Meir, TPS
Wave of terror is not about to end
Op-ed: This is where we have chosen to live, and we are going live with terror for many years to come - that is, if we don’t die first from a heart attack, in a suicide bombing or after being stabbed by a 14-year-old girl from East Jerusalem.
The "bottom line," as we often say and write, is that Palestinian terror will continue. With short and long breaks, with knives and with ambush fire. There has almost always been terror, and there will likely always be terror.
Here are a few comments on the issue:
Whoever has chosen to live in a "villa in the jungle" should take into consideration the possibility that poisonous snakes will often crawl into it, and that the tiger - after devouring the young goat - will seize the opportunity of the villa's gate being open for a few seconds and sneak in to devour another kitten. This is our life in our turbulent Middle East.
Circle of Violence
A. B. Yehoshua
Op-ed: After all the condemnations and threats he has issued since the start of the 'knife intifada,' it's time for the prime minister to turn to young Palestinians in a human, direct manner in a bid to stop the violence and offer hope for a better future for them and for us.
1. The fear routine: It's difficult or even impossible to create a bridge between the knife terror problem and its solution. This terror is killing people among us, each victim means everything to their family and friends, and it usually fails to distinguish between an 82-year-old woman and an 18-year-old soldier. In order to stab to death, there is no need for training camps: A knife, scissors or a screwdriver are all it takes.
The knife terror routine could drive an entire country mad. One day in a shopping mall in Be'er Sheva, the next day in a clock shop in Tel Aviv or at a vegetable stand at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market. It's enough for them, and it's enough to make millions of Israeli citizens feel real fear: Is the man in front of us a friend or a predator?
Defense establishment officials have almost no doubt that the knives, the stones, the Molotov cocktails and the ambush fire will be followed by suicide bombers (Photo: AFP)
2. No warning: In this type of terror, the intelligence services are incapable of delivering the goods. Often, only several minutes pass between the terrorist's decision and its implementation. The media will ask "difficult questions" later (why was there no warning? Why did the ambulances arrive 33 seconds later and not seven seconds later?), but at the moment there are four people in serious condition in front of us.
As it is almost impossible to know who the perpetrator will choose and where, flooding the streets and junctions with thousands of security and police officers is not a long-term solution. While the terrorists are eventually killed, fear is taking over every Israeli corner.
3. How to respond: Who should the response be directed at? A state? There is no state behind the knife-wielding person. An organization? There is no organization. A family, a home? Even if the terrorist's relatives support him in their hearts, they will condemn the act out loud. Should we destroy their house? The world will condemn us: Why is the mother of a 14-year-old girl, who pulled out a knife on her way home from school in Jerusalem's Wadi Joz neighborhood, responsible for her daughter's act?
4. The hierarchy: Among members of the defense establishment, there is almost no doubt that after the knives, the killing stones, the burning Molotov cocktails and the ambush fire, the suicide bombers will arrive too with explosives hidden under their clothes. We saw it in the first intifada, and in the second one.
5. Deterrence: There is no such thing. The thing is changing the definition. We could, for example, write here that Hezbollah is scared to death of the IDF and is deterred. We could also say that Hezbollah is learning its lesson and gathering tens of thousands of missiles, waiting for orders. They will decide when and where. And what will we say the day they open fire? That our deterrence wasn’t working that day?
6. Jewish terror: Muhammad from the refugee camp in Shuafat and Penuel from the Pedaya settlement are the same. Muhammad doesn’t recognize the Zionist entity and will do anything to destroy it. Penuel doesn’t recognize the Zionist entity either, and as far as he is concerned, it can go to hell. They are two radical ends lighting up a match near a powder keg, and let the State of Israel and the whole world blow up.
7. The bottom line: Unfortunately, we have chosen to live here of all places, and we will live with terror for many years to come - that is, if we don’t die first from a heart attack or in a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus or after being stabbed by a knife pulled out by an eighth grader from a certain school near Qalandiya.
