Stopping the Jihadist monsters from getting in

‘How did they get in?’ It’s a natural question to ask. It’s one I’ve heard asked over and over by many different people over the past week in regard to the deadly and homicidal-intentioned infiltrations into the communities of Otniel, Tekoa, and now Beit Horon.

In case you missed the latest news, last night 23-year-old young Shlomit Krigman HY’D was murdered and another woman was injured when a pair of Jihadists from nearby villages hopped a community fence and went on a stabbing spree near the supermarket.

If it wasn’t for the bravery of the market owner using a shopping cart to ward off the attackers, last’s night incident, which was an intended bombing-attack as well, could have been even worse.  Thankfully both attackers were killed by a security guard.

In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu called on the security establishment to prepare a detailed and comprehensive plan to protect the communities of Judea and Samaria from further carnage.

But don’t these communities already have either fences, or guards, and/or first-responders, and IDF soldiers nearby?  With those precautions already in place, why are our enemies successful?

Now I’m not a security expert, but on numerous occasions I have accompanied those who are, tagging along on security-focused tours of various communities in Judea and Samaria to understand the situation.

It boils down to this – if an Arab has jihadist intentions and is able to reach just the outskirts or the fence of your community, sadly there is a very good chance someone is going to get hurt.

Beit Horon has a fence. Itamar has a fence, and still five members of the Fogel family were brutally murdered in their home on a Friday night in 2011.

If a community’s first response unit or the IDF is called into action, it is likely that something bad has already gone down.

But there are solutions.

The first is a practical and short-term solution. While nothing is full-proof, more and more communities are installing thermal all-weather technologically advanced camera systems in order to detect suspicious activity well OUTSIDE their community. This way a security team and/or the IDF can quickly mobilize and respond while a potential attacker is still hundreds of meters away from his or her intended target.

But secondly, and even more importantly, this is where our elected leadership must come into the picture, specifically our Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.

While of course it is publicized time and time again how our valiant soldiers thwart dozens and dozens of attacks, and regularly arrest suspects, the fight needs to be taken inside the hornets’ nest. In other words, those whose intention it is to murder Jews along with their supporters need to be taken out of their cozy homes and arrested.

This is understandably difficult especially in light of the phenomenon of knife-attackers who act alone in choosing to carry out suicide missions.  I am deliberately avoiding calling these individuals ‘lone-wolves,’ since I don’t believe such a concept exists (see below).  But the point is, that more of these monsters must be stopped in their villages before they even get within range of a Jewish community’s camera system.

But even more importantly, it’s time to view these attacks on a larger scale. It is very difficult to claim at this juncture that one can’t grasp how it’s possible that 12 and 13 year olds living under the PA try to murder.  The daily incitement from PA leaders using their official institutions – television, (which the Shin Bet now says inspired the Otniel attacker) radio, and perhaps most relevant for today social media, is exposed regularly. With that hatred being spewed, and brainwashed subscribers to that hate acting out, ‘lone wolf’ is hardly an appropriate term.

The bottom line is that once and for all, the PA must be sent packing. From Mahmoud Abbas and all his cronies in Ramallah’s Mukata, to those in the PA security forces who time and time again prove that they are willing to turn their weapons against Jews, the PA must be dismantled.

Enough is enough.

What Israel does after that is a discussion for another entry. But with the Israeli casualty numbers mounting, let’s confidently give the appropriate response when asked, ‘How did they get in?’ so that we can prevent it from ever happening again.