When Operation Guardian of the Wall broke out, I was on my way to a wedding in one of the beautiful wineries of Judea and Samaria.
Already on the way there, the alarm sounded that the missiles had reached the heart of the country.
If I had not had the bride's soul mates with me in the car - there is a chance I would have dispersed and returned home.
I realized that we were facing another intifada and I was sure I would make my way back under a meter of stones, handcuffs and a lot of masked men. In my heart I regretted only one thing: that I had no weapon for deterrence and self-defense.
The data show that I am not unusual: if in an average year about 10,000 applications are submitted to the Ministry of Defense for a license to carry a private firearm, then in the past year the number has doubled, and almost 20,000 civilians have applied for a license. About two-thirds of the requests were submitted after Operation Wall Guard; A third of them in June - immediately after the events of May. In the past week, after the severe riots in the Negev, a new wave of arms seekers has arisen.
The citizens of Israel make a simple calculation: they have seen the helplessness and helplessness of the police, including the outrageous and false statements about "violence on both sides"; They saw that the authorities believing in homeland security were incapable, ideologically and practically, of dealing with a wave of domestic vandalism; Citizens of the cities involved were forced to watch their property burned and looted and their comrades beaten and murdered, with police hotspots continuing to ensure "police are on the way" and "do nothing" - and they understood: if the police do not protect us It remains to take care of each one for himself, his family and his neighbors.
But this becoming a weapon, legitimate and understandable as it may be, is very bad news. It shows a deep erosion in the basic contract between the state and the citizens - the contract under which the citizens agree to give the state a monopoly on violence provided it protects them and their rights. If the only way to bring peace to the streets of the cities involved in the days of riots is not to call Hotline 100 but to organize patrols of armed civilians that will frighten the attackers, we are in trouble. The patrolmen are great righteous and probably saved human lives, but over time it is forbidden to build on it. A functioning country needs a functioning police force. The surge in demand for weapons only exacerbates the problem: more and more citizens feel that in the moment of truth there is no one to protect them. If there is no meaning to the police and every citizen holds a weapon and when necessary steps and shoots, it has one definition: anarchy. The kind of things that everyone understands why they start, and no one knows how they will end and who will pay the highest price.
I have no complaints to the gun owners;
As mentioned, I might as well join them.
But this trend is supposed to keep sleep out of the eyes of police chiefs and state captains, as in the long run there is a strategic breach of homeland security here.
If there is one and only one role for the government - any government whatsoever - it concerns exactly this: more concern for education and health, more than passing a budget, even more than preventing a fifth election - the government has to work day and night to make sure its citizens can sleep peacefully, even without a gun under a pillow .
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