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Came for a puncture: how I almost became a statistic myself in the scourge of road violence | Israel today

2022-12-08T11:45:54.239Z


An encounter with an angry young man on the road, because of a detour, also exposed me this week to the scourge of monstrous violence • Fortunately, it ended peacefully, but I certainly thought of the judge who would have released the attacker if he had broken Jack on me


By virtue of my job, I travel more roads than the average Israeli.

Sometimes I enjoy the ride.

But if my memory serves me right, I think that once, years ago, I enjoyed it much more.

I am often invited to perform in beautiful rural settlements, and there are very few silly sentences of the "The road to the settlement is one of the most beautiful in the country. The view is breathtaking, you can't see Tuscany from the rain. If you weren't traveling in the dark, you would really enjoy it."


Oh well.

It was you who invited me to perform in the evening... besides, it's no secret that the experience of traveling in Israel has become less pleasant.

And the traffic jams are not the main reason for this.

There's also that little fear thing.

In short, it happened to me too.

Precisely in daylight.

I was on my way to a lecture in Rosh Ha'Ain.

The sun was shining, the traffic lights were chirping, and the entrance to the city was a mental work of winding traffic circles in the center of each of which stood a rather idiotic statue.

Also, for your information, the Wise does not like traffic circles, and something in the voice of the announcer who says "take the third exit" betrays a kind of embarrassed feeling that there must be a better way to give the instruction.

In short, I didn't know the road, and there was a sharp left turn that immediately after it you have to break quickly to the right at the traffic light.

No fun.

Then I saw something in the mirror.

A driver who was behind me, a young man, immediately realized, apparently, that I was not a local.

So he built on a cool detour, a spectacular cut and a break that would leave me behind even before the traffic lights.

At a certain age you may believe that you can get a lot done in a hundred meters.

I just noticed that he didn't succeed, and that he is angry that he didn't succeed.

He is angry with me.

is very.

Apparently I didn't take the turn the way he thought I would, and now, hey, he's getting out of his car in a rolling rage to... for what really.

In short, a guy in his 20s gets out of the car with a door slamming and walks towards me with a threatening movement.

He didn't come to chat.

Do not comment or claim his insult.

He came to do something.

I was happy to see in the mirror that his hands were empty.

He started banging on the windows.

I closed

I made sure everything was locked.

It is a fact that I am writing these words.

I'm not old anymore, I told myself.

Although even when I was the age, come on... of the geeks in the world, I was always more into the weekly drawing for a kid and less into the Jackie Chan section.

I looked at him with the most non-provocative look I could muster and it occurred to me that there, on the right side of the window, a guy who could have been my boy was running amok.

Even though it's an idiotic phrase.

If he were my child, I don't think he would act like this.

Or drives like that.

But you will know.

Maybe his parents think so too.

In the meantime, I indicated to him in the language of the vowels all the theatrical gestures of condescension that occurred to me.

I apologized like zero.

I put my hands together and bowed my head.

I was a Burmese monk and Rabbi Elimelech of those who are insulted and those who are not insulted.

You're right.

You're right.

Just finally calm down and go back to your car.

After all, someday you will kill someone.

Or at least send him to the hospital with a serious injury.

Wear a cap in court, which will create an odd symmetry with your casualty's headgear.

He will arrive at the hearing with the help of a walker and a relative.

You will ask for consideration from the honorable judge.

Considering your young age, probably.

Wave your clean bag, the very fact that it is clean is a disgrace to the police and a danger to all of us.

Everyone will one day be asked to consider you, even though you yourself never thought to consider anyone or anything.

Don't worry, man, they'll figure it out.

When the guy gave up, he turned on his heel and returned to the car cursing.

I thought thoughts, most of which are difficult to articulate.

Certainly not in the Hebrew that passes the esteemed editors of the newspaper in your hands.

I thought, for example, what would I do if he had something in his hand?

What kind of box wrench, or other metal object that is used to fix punctures, or to puncture drivers?

Could I do anything at all in front of a shattered windshield?

And mostly I thought how come I'm not surprised.

And how is it, I think now, that most readers are probably not surprised either?

After all, just last week I read about three cases of severe violence whose background, as reported by the police and as published, was - indirect.

Here because yes, we no longer need an early conflict to get to stabbings.

or slap a helmet on your head.

There must not be a financial, romantic or criminal conflict.

Detour, gentlemen, is all that is needed.

And from that moment on, the garlic peel is the value of the life of the idiot driver who, after all, was driving somewhere, and did not know, until the moment he hit his head, that he had chanced upon a virtual extreme game that was flickering in the - rather unstable - soul of the driver or rider who was just trying to kill him.

What's going on here?!

***

Everyone talks about the light sentences handed down by the court, and it's hard to argue with them.

Some of the texts that come out of the judges' desks look like twisted quibbles that wouldn't embarrass the sages of a dream.

Many citizens believe that the role of the court is to make their lives, or at least the public domain, a safer and safer place.

But the judges are not there.

They are not evangelists who deal with the disposal of hazards or garbage.

They are engaged in the profession of judging, for God's sake, and it is a literary and intellectual profession.

So every lawyer knows how easy it is to argue that a stab in the chest, or a fatal shot, is not at all an attempted murder as we, amateurs and superficial like us, might think.

Which makes it clear that while on our roads there are killers of a new kind, ones that turn on in a second;

Ones that don't need more than two words and a helmet to go from complete strangers to trying to kill you;

At this time, our judges still see the classic murder as something that must be slow-cooked.

on the fuse.

With heartbreaks and journal scribbles.

Like in the novels of the 19th century.

And in short, our judges live in Balzac's book, while the murderers live in TikTok.

The only question is where we live.

In one thing the judges are right: our road killers do not get up in the morning and plan to murder someone.

The classical "intention" motif is nameless.

The problem is that they may not plan, but they are always ready to spill blood.

Which means that no amount of severe punishment will really change the fact, to take just one striking example, that there are many young people among us who are unable to hear a comment.

or respect older people.

Or just accept the fact that there are other people in the world for whom the sidewalk and the road are a means of getting from here to there.

It's a monstrous human phenomenon, and it's happening right under our noses.

And she grew out of a generation that seemingly grew up in a more reformed world, where teachers don't beat students, and no adult shouts "go home, tzitzik".

And with all the criticism of our lenient courts, the educational and cultural failure, out of which this monster has grown, is far wider and deeper than any question of deterrence and punishment.

In the meantime, friends, make sure you have strong windows in your car.

shishabat@israelhayom.co.il

were we wrong

We will fix it!

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-12-08

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