And so we bury another holy Jew and another holy Jewess. Nineteen-year-old sergeant Noa Lazar was shot dead by an Arab terrorist, a Jerusalem resident. Staff sergeant Ido Baruch was shot dead near Shavei Shomron. Another soldier is fighting for his life as I write these lines. What happened?
Nothing unusual.
Noa's killers came from a Jerusalem neighborhood called Shuafat. Moments after the killings were announced, celebrations erupted in Shuafat with fireworks and parties Local boys had made them proud.
Jerusalem is the haven where hundreds of thousands of Arabs enjoy the generous benefits of the Jewish state. It is also the place where Arabs find an endless array of opportunities to kill Jews.
We gave them rifles in Judea and Samaria. They shot and killed Ido from a moving car.
The IDF is looking for them and no doubt will find them. But then?
It wasn't always this way. I remember a time when the Arabs received fewer services and consideration and they killed far fewer Jews. There was fear of the Jewish State and the long arm of the IDF acted as a deterrent.
But today, many of us don't want to be feared. We want to be loved, especially by our enemies.
Is it possible that superior medical, social, and educational services lavished by the Jewish state do not buy us the appreciation of the Arab population or even the quiet we crave?
This is the only place in the world where this experiment has been tried and where the results are so clearly a failure.
The results of the experiment are in. You can't buy love or appreciation. You can not reduce hate through bribes.
But this is the mindset of official Israel for the last fifty years.
I remember a far different reality.
I remember when Jews moved freely through any part of the city and it was the Arabs who thought twice about their actions.
That was another world; one that we replaced with a world in which Jews are afraid and Arabs are not.
And there are Jews who prefer it this way. They would rather fear than be feared.
They were the ones who brought about the killing fields and the situation on the streets of Jerusalem. The terrorist enemy simply took advantage of those who have lost their moral compass and instinct for survival.
And yes, the authorities usually apprehend the killers.
Score: another two Jews killed, their families destroyed and soon the killers apprehended to become comfortable and educated in an Israeli jail, rich through Abbas' pay-for-slay monies.
Meanwhile, Arab masses celebrate the killings with fireworks and sweets and probably some of them sit next to me on the bus and train the next day.
Will this march of folly end?
It can. It depends on us.
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Let us go on to the general picture,.
Which are the cities where the most antisemitic acts occur today?
Don't look in traditionally antisemitic Europe or in the USA, where these attacks have been increasingly common place because the answer is not to be found there.
It is in the so-called "mixed cities '' of Israel where Arab minorities live alongside a Jewish majority; where Arabs live a life that Arabs throughout the Middle East envy. It is the cities where the Israeli Arabs live, in Lod, Ramla, Jaffa, Acco and Jerusalem where the number of antisemitic attacks ix highest.
The vast majority of the daily assaults are not reported. Will the police respond to "petty" hate crimes against Jews? Shoving a Jewish child off his bike, knocking a kippah off his head, spitting and cursing at Jews as they walk by, a kind of targeted vandalism? Who has time for that? The authorities are wont to explain that that is the reality of life in a mixed city. Don't expect any different
The Israel police's hands are tied by the justice system's - or perhaps they simply abdicate their mission .The bottom line is they failed to protect Jews from their Arab neighbors. This is the reality
Jews, especially in the "mixed cities " live in uncertainty and suspicion of their Arab neighbors since the riots less than two years ago.
The same goes for the increasing loss of personal security in other parts of the country where Arabs are a large presence like the Galilee and Negev.
When and where will Arabs fall en masse upon Jewish neighbors as in the pogroms of May 2021?
Can it happen again? Will it?
Of course, says the consensus .
Perhaps the police response will be differernt, but if it is not, this time the victims will not be frustrated by the illusion of the police coming to their rescue. They will not plead and cry on the phone for hours and days as they watch their cars and homes go up in flames as they did in May 2021..
What will they do? What does one do to protect one's family and property? And don't forget national pride.
The Torah warned us of exactly what we are experiencing today. in Deuteronomy 28:43 - "The foreigner who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher and you will sink lower and lower"
And we were warned,:in Numbers:33:55 - "But if you will not drive them out, those who you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes. They will trouble the land in which you live."
Rabbi Akiva was able to laugh as he witnessed foxes running amongst the ruins of the destroyed Temple because he reasoned that just as the negative prophecies have come true so will the positive ones. There is hope he said.
And so the same Torah that foresaw our current troubles, tells us,:in Deuteronomy 15:6 "You will rule many nations but none will rule over you."
There is hope
It all depends on us.
Shalom Pollack, [email protected], is a popular tour guide and author of "Jews, Israelis and Arabs"