Last week, terrorists Elisha Antman, Harel Massoud, Nachman Mordoff and Ofer Fairman were murdered at a gas station near the community of Ali. Three weeks earlier, Meir Tamari, a resident of the community of Hermesh in Samaria, was murdered. The five victims join the 29 victims of terrorism since the beginning of 2023.
The routine of terrorist attacks into which the citizens of the State of Israel are born and with which the citizens of the State of Israel grow up, in all its diversity, has turned the bar of shock and understanding of the various meanings of terrorist attacks that are carried out into a very high threshold. Let's face it, an attack that is carried out manages to hold our emotional and mental attention for one day, and in special and exceptional cases - for two days.
True, this is not about rising cottage prices, nor about the cost of housing, or even about legal reform. And yet – men, women and children are murdered every Monday and Thursday just because they are Jews, and apart from a few protests – the country is silent.
Netanyahu reacts to my husband's attack // Archive photo
The painful truth is that we have become accustomed to being murdered. We have become accustomed to the fact that every day people wake up in the morning and think and plan how to carry out the next murder of Jews. If you are interested, age, political affiliation and the position for or against the legal reform do not interest the murderers very much in choosing the subjects of the attacks.
The truly disturbing and dangerous point is that not only the citizens of Israel have become accustomed to it, but also its officials. We are all familiar with the tweets and statements of the prime minister and ministers after the various attacks: "Condolences, the security forces will settle scores with the terrorists," etc.
Every time I read or watch those recycled comments, I ask myself - what exactly do you need it for? The Israel Defense Forces and the security forces work day and night to prevent attempts to carry out attacks, and to apprehend the murderers who have already succeeded, unfortunately, in carrying out such attacks. How exactly did the weak response to the action that would be carried out anyway, regardless of who would occupy the role of declarant?
Perhaps the government and its members are satisfied with the obvious responses to the various attacks, because we do not insist on receiving slightly more detailed explanations from them – why does the State of Israel continue to maintain warm relations with the Palestinian Authority, whose leaders incite, finance and encourage the murder of Jews? Why aren't deterrent actions being carried out against families of terrorists? Why is no law passed to prevent amnesty or shorter sentences for murderers of Jews (see the case of Moshe Tamam)? Why are the prison conditions of terrorists in the State of Israel above what is required by international law?
The State of Israel's doctrine of action treats terrorist attacks in a dichotomous manner – a complete separation between attacks in which a "small" number of people are murdered, and attacks in which the number of murdered is large. Thus, the concepts of "lone terrorist" and "containment policy" spilled over and took over our lives, and thus we became accustomed to a reality in which more and more Jews are murdered here on a regular basis.
A matter that will pass in silence
The way the State of Israel thinks and acts as a result was well understood by those who seek its evil. If only suicide bombers and rocket fire are the state to take broad action, when it comes to a terrorist who murders a single Jew or several, the matter will pass in silence. And so, in the method of murdered and murdered, our many bodies are laid.
Not only do we not kill those who rise up to kill us, because of our consistent refusal to recognize that the multiplicity of lone terrorists is indicative of the rule and requires other actions on our part – but we have simply accepted and become accustomed to the situation.
While it is very difficult to break away from the habits we acquired during the 2,000 years of exile, the time has come to say enough, to take to the streets, block roads (quite legitimate these days) and make it clear to the leaders that we have stopped, and will stop too, to get used to the fact that we are being murdered. There is not and will not be a more justified protest.
Adv. Elichai Ben Yishai is the brother of Ruthie Fogel, z"l, who was murdered with her husband and three children in her home in Itamar in March 2011
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