My Facebook feed today is full of stories about the massacre of a religious family living in Itamar in the disputed Israeli territories. The Fogel family. Both parents and three children stabbed to death. 2 other children slept through this and a 3rd was out and came home to discover the bloodbath. My thoughts and sympathies are with them, G-d knows how they will work through this. As I read through the story, I understood that recently the checkpoint at Itamar was removed. Would keeping it have prevented these brutal murders?
And then the fallout with my neighbour Helen (not her real name) resounded. It was only 3 weeks ago when I casually popped in after a walk to the shops to say hello. Helen is a bit of a macher at our local shul and is incredibly polite to everybody. The Promise had just had its second airing and I started discussing it with her. “Well the Israeli soldiers are too hard at the checkpoints” she stated. A little taken back hearing this from her, I replied “well they have to be, they have to make sure no suicide bombers get through, no?”.
“Well they could just ask questions and be politer…” she replied. “It was an Israeli friend who told me how harsh they are”.
“Maybe they are harsh,” I replied, “but they have to be, what about that female suicide bomber who tried to get into Israel using medical authorization papers? She had an explosive belt strapped onto her to blow up in an Israeli hospital.”
“Well I still think they should be politer…..”
All I could think about was Jews politely queuing up to board those trains to Auschwitz. No bloody harsh IDF soldiers then.
I told Helen this (admittedly with feelings running high inside me) and how bloody grateful I was to our IDF boys. She simply couldn’t make the connection and stuck to her point that the IDF were too tough. It was impossible to stay in her company, I left feeling blown apart inside. Today, the flames of emotion have been awoken again and I want to go and stuff the story of the Fogels through her letterbox and see what her comment is now.
What is it with British Jews, why do they make excuses for our enemies? Do they need bombs in Golders Green to wake them up?
Gina in Golders Green 
Brian of London said,
March 28, 2011 @ 1:46 pm
I wrote the following about the “checkpoints” we have all over Israel. You might enjoy it.
http://www.israellycool.com/2010/08/08/i-was-strangled-by-a-checkpoint-not-west-bank/