"Who is wise? One who foresees that which has not yet happened." -- Talmud, Tamid 32a


At least one Arab has boarded this bus without going through any security checks whatsoever.



It was just an ordinary bus journey and I have no idea what set my thoughts in such a morbid direction. Perhaps it was because walking to the bus stop a few minutes earlier, I had passed the spot where my second cousin Lily Goren-Friedman (H.y.d.) was murdered, together with Jean Relevy (H.y.d.) and Batsheva Unterman (H.y.d.), by Hussam Taysir Ibrahim Dawiyat, the Arab bulldozer driver, just last month. The bulldozers are still in place along Jaffa Road in the centre of Jerusalem; still being operated by Arabs.


Boarding the bus, I bought a ten-journey ticket and, as the bus driver handed me the change, I noticed his Arabic accent. At least, I thought, if the next bulldozer terrorist approaches this bus, maybe the driver will be able to yell out something in Arabic; maybe the terrorist will be deterred from killing one of his own.


My thoughts broadened at the next bus stop. The man now boarding, is he a Jew or an Arab? Is that shopping basket as innocent as it looks? If he is a suicide terrorist, will he notice that the driver is an Arab, then get off the bus and wait for another one whose driver is called Moshe rather than Musa?


And then, as the bus accelerated along Herzl Street, the truly frightening thought struck me. At least one Arab has boarded this bus without going through any security checks whatsoever. What is really in that bag under the driver's seat? Has anyone checked? Has this Egged bus driver received the same security clearance as Hussam Taysir Ibrahim Dawiyat? Or the same security clearance as Shadi Duow, the Arab policeman who inexplicably decided not to shoot the bulldozer terrorist?


On the 6th of July 1989, an Arab passenger on board bus no. 405 from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, Abd al-Hadi Ghanayem, lunged at the driver, grabbed the steering wheel and hurled the bus into the ravine by the side of the road. Fourteen Jews were murdered, dozens more injured. Even though the terrorist had stabbed the driver in order to overcome him, the driver was able to hit the brakes and struggle with the terrorist; God alone knows how many lives the driver thereby saved.


And what would have happened had the terrorist been the driver, in full control of the bus? And what would happen if an Egged bus driver, driving his bus at 50 km/h through a Jerusalem suburb, suddenly swings the steering wheel violently to the left, directly into an oncoming bus also moving at 50 km/h? How many passengers would be killed

How realistic was it that young, successful, educated, wealthy Arabs would turn four jet airliners into the most potent terrorist weapons in history?

 in a head-on collision with a combined speed of 100 km/h (62 mph)? To be sure, the driver's chance of survival would be minimal, but isn't that precisely the point of a suicide terrorist? Which is the more attractive prospect - a humdrum day job as an Egged bus driver ferrying Jews around Jerusalem (or Tel Aviv, or Haifa, or wherever), or spending eternity in paradise with Allah and seventy-two virgins?


Is this scenario too fanciful to be realistic? I pray to God that it is. But how realistic was it that an Arab construction worker would turn a bulldozer into a weapon of terrorism? How realistic was it that young, successful, educated, wealthy Arabs would turn four jet airliners into the most potent terrorist weapons in history? How realistic is it to expect that of all the Arabs currently driving Egged buses through Israel, not a single one will use his steering wheel for Jihad? But how realistic is it to expect Egged to stop hiring Arab bus drivers?


Then again, if - chas veshalom (God forbid) - an Arab bus driver ever does carry out such an attack, will that change Egged's hiring policy?


Next time you are on Jaffa Street, look at who is driving the bulldozers there. That will give you the answer.