The Merkaz ha-Rav shooting and two bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem demonstrated a grave danger of which I first wrote a decade ago: lone terrorists. They represent a great threat to society because there is no way to intercept them. In military terms, lone terrorists are negligible, at least insofar as they do not acquire chemical and biological means of mass murder. Individual terrorists, however, can wreak havoc on society. The most frightening thing about terrorism is that it can affect anyone. Civilians can hide in bomb shelters during air raids, or stay in sealed rooms during chemical attacks, but they cannot evade a terrorist on the street with just a knife. Terrorism by lone Arabs threatens every Israeli.
Unlike many others, I routinely ride buses. More than a few times I have had that cold feeling you get when a suspicious-looking Arab in loose clothes boards the bus. What can you do? Shoot the Arab female because her hijab is too bulky? You never know whether it’s her stomach or a shahid belt, whether she is agitated for myriad household reasons or is waiting to press the button.
There is just no legal solution to grassroots terrorism. In the aftermath of the second bulldozer attack, police faked tough actions by checking driver’s licenses and work permits of Arab drivers. Both attackers had valid licenses and work permits. Such attacks cannot be intercepted: there is no planning period, no other people involved, no indications. One day something clicked in the mind of a common Arab, and he drove his bulldozer at some Jews. We don’t even know what it was: resentment over a Jewish girlfriend, rough treatment by his Jewish foreman, or a recent inflammatory speech in his neighborhood mosque.
Don’t give the Arabs bulldozers? Also, don’t give them buses, trucks, taxis, or any cars? Take from them tens of thousands of illegal weapons—but also axes, knives, and stones? Don’t sell them bottles because they can make Molotov cocktails?
The Torah is wise, as usual. We are commanded to expel the natives because they would always seek to harm us, seeing us correctly as invaders who robbed them of their country. As long as a single Arab lives in the Land of Israel, no Jew can feel safe. That’s prevention. What about punishment? I doubt that semi-atheist Arabs would be deterred by the prospect of their dead bodies being burned in pigskins. The only way to punish and possibly deter them is to go after their families. Not with house demolitions, because the martyrs’ families quickly get new houses elsewhere, purchased with Saudi or Fatah money, through Israeli tax transfers to the Palestinians. The terrorists’ families must suffer in tit-for-tat fashion and—in line with the Torah—until the fourth generation. Like it or not, there is no alternative to going after the terrorist’s families, killing and mutilating entire households. Israeli police cannot do that, but they can turn a blind eye to good Jews lynching the relatives of bad Palestinians.
This way the Wild West America routed its criminals, and thus Israel can be saved.
(The picture is just funny with no offense or comparison meant whatsoever)
