Is there any link between the brazen decision taken by the Jerusalem Arab to plow his truck into a group of soldiers and the fact that they did not react by immediately emptying their rifles on the attacker?
Did the Arab show his disdain for us?
This latest terror attack comes on the heels of the indictment on man slaughter charges of sergeant Elor , the soldier who killed the wounded terrorist in Hevron.
That was immediately followed with a raucous debate embracing the typical right/left partisan positions.
Was Elor immoral for shooting an immobilized terrorist who had just wounded Jews or was he doing the most natural and desired thing in finishing of the terrorist who came to kill Jews?
What is (Jewish/Israeli) morality?
Did the fleeing soldiers act under the influence of the relentless attack on Elor by the powers that be (the Left) ; the media,celebs, judicial, military brass etc.. and his eventual indictment?
Were the soldiers wary of facing a military court for reasons they could not imagine at the moment, but played it safe..?
Many believe that is the case. Others do not. Again the Right/Left divide.
I recall viewing a clip of soldiers in Hevron cringing; clinging to a low wall as they were being bombarded by rocks and boulders.
They were not allowed to use their weapons. No one in the chain of command wanted to be caught holding the hot potato that the masters of morality baked for them.
Arabs celebrated our helplessness. And have not stopped celebrating.
Israelis (I should say Jews, because most Israeli Arabs never feel there is moral justification to kill an Arab terrorist – it is after all, his natural right of “resistance”) are drifting wider apart on where the moral boundaries are to be drawn. This debate is rapidly escalating where it has long been pushed under the carpet.
Indeed, the debate about what is this Jewish state at all is coming out from under the carpet.
In 1996, when Shimon Peres lost a very close election to Netanyahu, he was asked, “who won the election’? He said, “the Jews” “And who lost then”? “The Israelis”
It was a “what is your first association” test .
It revealed much.
The number of Jews who see themselves as Jews first are increasing due to demographics and post Oslo awakenings, while the “Israeli” who cling to the reigns of power and “culture” are a dwindling minority.
I think I actually met one of those Israelis today at he gym.
He was an older man who has been here “longer than I have” as he reminded me.
The discussion quickly turned to the horrible recent truck murder.
I asked him does he remember, as I do, a time when it was much safer to walk the streets of Israeli cities;a time when vehicles did not run down Jews at any given moment and when Arabs of all ages and sex would no dare stab their Jewish neighbor?
Did he remember as I, a time when suicide bombers were unheard of?
He scoffed at me.
He said there has always been Arab attacks even before the state was established. Didn’t I know that?
I pointed out that before the state was established, there was no Israel to respond to or prevent the attacks. That is exactly why we established our state.
I also pointed out that if you look at the graph of Arab attacks on Jews, they increased with every concession, and jumped especially with the water shed event of Oslo in 1993. That is when we opened our doors to Arafat and his thousands of terrorists (peace partners), armed them and created safe sanctuaries fro them.
My veteran friend began to raise his voice.
He was getting annoyed. “No, no, it was not Oslo. That changed nothing!”
He knows. He is in Israel longer than I.
After all, the Israeli knows better than the Jew.
