I can’t keep track of the victims

Another day, another deadly attack in the name of Jihad. Today it was 30-year-old Eliav Gelman HY’D, an IDF Reserve Officer who was murdered waiting for a ride at the Gush Junction. Yes, that same Gush Junction where so and so was murdered.

Oh wait, wasn’t it at Sha’ar Shechem (Damascus Gate) that he was killed? Or am I confusing that attack with the one in Otniel, Beit Horon, Tel Aviv, or the one on the road? As time goes by, I’m sickened to admit, it’s hard to keep track of who was murdered, where they were murdered, the circumstances, or how long it has been since they’ve died. Has the family gotten up from shiva? Have we passed the shloshim? Are they still saying Kaddish?

But maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Perhaps, it’s so hard to keep track of the victims, because the death toll is mounting. The list of injured is mounting.

When will this madness end?

When do we — the communal ‘we’ represented by our elected officials say “enough is enough?” This isn’t 1929 and this isn’t 1941. I too am guilty of trying to find that silver lining rationalizing that at least we don’t live in so-and-so time period.

Yes, we have a state. Yes, we have an army. This isn’t even 2002.

In 2002, it took the Park Hotel massacre to finally say “enough is enough.”

What is it going to take this time?

And if a decision is finally made that enough is enough, will the necessary action be taken?

Operation Defensive Shield struck at the clearly marked Hamas and Fatah terror targets. But now we’re talking mostly about teens with knives (and of course the occasional shooting carried out by our PA police “peace partners”).

So how do we defend against those teens? Not with 100 soldiers at the Gush Junction, and not with 1,000. Even with that many troops — and the Gush is full of soldiers, it can happen again.

The solution is to go on the offensive against those sending the knife-wielding attackers. While IDF troops carry out nightly raids, it just isn’t enough.

Maybe the PA isn’t giving the direct orders (who knows maybe they are), but with the daily incitement in official PA outlets including social media, television, radio, the schools, the mosques, etc. they might as well be openly calling for the murder of Jews.

We must shut down their outlets of hate, and ultimately shut them down entirely.

Israel has dedicated 23 years to bolstering our ‘partners,’ and we are way overdue to send them packing once and for all.

It’s gotten to a point where it’s hard to keep track of the victims. Let’s not make it even harder.