Every morning I ride my bike in Gush Etzion, wondering if one of the passers-by would suddenly become a killer and try to kill me • I know these are almost always innocent residents, but you can not get rid of the fear • The news of Esther Horgan's murder caught me on the bike - her will is to continue our routine
In the early hours of one morning last week, while riding my off-road bike, I came across a young Palestinian man with a huge hammer in his hand.
I'm on a bike and he's in front of me with a 5 pound hammer.
The job site was nearby, logic was by his side, and still - me, him - and a huge hammer.
Ehud Amiton / TPS
This is my regular route and that of many others.
A dirt path under the settlement of Efrat that is quite popular among cyclists on their way to the forest in the west of Gush Etzion, and among cyclists (singles).
The path crosses orchards and vineyards in a rather pastoral landscape.
The peasants who work on the side of the road are usually relatively elderly, and raise their hand in peace as we gallop past them.
But that day I was not at all sure that pastoralism was the right word to define the situation, as I quickly approached a young man holding the heavy hammer on his shoulder.
He looked at me, I looked at him, and I was painfully aware of the gun in my right waist.
I came across scripts and possible reactions in my head.
And what do you do if and how and how much and why.
Then I went through it.
everything will be alright.
The following week I refrained from coming to the same place, breaking a routine, just in case.
One can only assume that this is what Esther Horgan went through in her thoughts in her last moments, and this is the nightmare we live in.
You see a man, and he turns in front of you in a second into a raging killer.
One moment you are a normative person, the kind you see every day, and the next you are literally fighting for your life.
I also received the news of the murder on the bike.
I paused for a moment to arrange the spotify near the Tzurim spring - an amazing spring in the heart of a quiet forest - and then I saw on the phone the pushes that instantly made the forest dark and dark in the first morning light.
"Suspicion of murder in Samaria," it was written, and it was clear that this was a laundering of words, in the meantime, until the police decided to define the horrific incident as a terrorist attack.
I opened the picture of Esther Horgan.
A happy, smiling woman, whose light is off.
I saw a woman that people like her I see every day - running, riding, walking, hiking - men and women alike.
I continued riding but it was no longer the same.
The alertness doubled, the sadness deepened.
On the way home I passed by the same place where I saw the young man with the hammer last week.
The hand automatically dropped from the handlebars, ready for any trouble that might come.
There was no one there, the way home passed in peace.
I purchased the gun in 2015, at the height of the terror wave, after a man who went for a run was stabbed on my bike.
A few months ago I went through a day of training in shooting on a bicycle.
This is the reality in which we live and it must not be forgotten.
On the other hand, I never stopped riding because of one risk or another.
In my opinion, the same risk can also be found at the Haganah train station in Tel Aviv, on the way to work.
There, too, murder of a soldier, also there I walk around with a gun for any trouble that may come.
Esther Horgan's will is to keep going out, to keep up with sports activities everywhere.
Be careful, arm yourself, but never stop.
Because that is the purpose of the terrorists.
They want us to stop going to "Rami Levy", they want us to stop running and riding, they want us to stop getting to bus stops, malls, that our daily routine will become a nightmare.
Her will is not to stop for a moment, whether in Judea and Samaria, whether in Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv.
At the same time, we must demand from the police and the GSS to stop politically correct. In many of the terrorist attacks in recent years, the police have hesitated to define the incident as such. So was the murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan, so was the shocking murder of Uri Ansbacher. They define it, and reduce the problem, put the public to sleep.
When a woman disappears in the middle of the day and is discovered after long hours in the forest with a bruised skull, it can be assessed on any scale that it is a terrorist attack.
But the police are delaying and reducing the incident.
When it sounds like an attack, moves like an attack and runs like an attack - it's not a "murder suspicion" - it's an attack.