Yesterday my son came home from school and told me that there had been a terrorist attack and that one person was killed. The bus driver had received a phone call while taking them home to alert him, and on their way home the kids saw many army and police cars heading to the scene. (My son travels about 45 minutes each way to a school in the Shomron, and by law his bus must be bullet-proof. Every once in a while we get a sad reminder about why this law was implemented.)
Today I read that the person killed, Rav Meir Chai z”l, (Hashem yikom damo – G-d should avenge his blood) was killed in his car by a drive-by shooter, who riddled his car with bullets. This happened a little after four in the afternoon, about 500 meters away from where a checkpoint, until recently, was manned by IDF soldiers. A fellow resident of Rav Chai from Shavei Shomron, speaking at a protest las night, summed up many of our feelings when she said the following:
“I already have several friends who are widows, and I’m simply fed up of the fact that no one cares when roadblocks are removed and we pay with our lives,” she told Army Radio. “We have been abandoned and the government is busy fighting settlers instead of terrorists. I don’t know what the defense minister is doing, but he’s certainly not handling defense.”
Checkpoints save lives. Many on the left protest the inconvenience to the Arabs that must wait to be checked through, but they ignore the reason for them. Some American diplomats have also tried, unsuccessfully, to get through them without presenting documentation for everyone in their vehicles. One even tried to run over the soldier blocking their way, which prompted a pointed complaint by Israel to the American consulate. (They were probably very embarrassed to find that the whole incident was video recorded too.)
Time after time, when the Israeli government is strong-armed into making “gestures”, we pay the price with Jewish blood. This time it is especially bitter, as many of our soldiers are wasting their time keeping us from building homes instead of protecting us.
No Arab was ever killed by a home being built in Judea and Samaria (and many are making a living doing the building!!!). Many Jews have been killed by Arab terrorists. It is time for the Defense Minister to get his priorities straight.
West Bank Mama 
Dec 26, 2009 @ 21:57:00
Well-said!!
Dec 28, 2009 @ 20:55:35
We will get no breaks from this American administration, and none from the media who has tried Israel in the press and kangaroo-court fashion, found us guilty. [NB–Israel is responsible for a bomb blowing up in a Beirut suburb under a Hamas car–not Hezbollah, not Sunni Moslems, not Lebanese Phalangists, not some personal honor feud–its always Israel and this is being printed without question by the western press.] The Obama administration is staffed by far left moonbats who think that Iran’s repression is an “internal matter” and Jewish home-building, even in Jerusalem suburbs, is “settlement activity.”
BTW, Rabbi Chai was described in the media as “a settler” with no reference to his role as father and teacher; OTOH, Associated Press described his murderers as “activists.”
An activist is someone who hands out pamphlets for a cause—not someone who sprays a family car with bullets.
The media is controlled by the Red-Green (Left-Arab) alliance. We need our own “France 24” or BBC International equivalent to combat this.
Dec 31, 2009 @ 18:17:29
A friend sent me an e-mail about Rabbi Chai. Basically it said that he had been in an accident 12 years ago. He was hovering between life and death and pleaded to be allowed more time on this earth. He was granted 12 years and he fully recuperated. As the anniversary of the 12 years was drawing closer he was getting more nervous about how he would return his soul to his Creator. He was shot the day of his son’s 12th birthday party, 12 years after that first accident.