The WhatsApp Roll Call
We sat down yesterday after ordering a pizza with extra cheese and onions yesterday, and I pulled out my phone. The first thing I noticed was a message in our Shul Whatsapp group.
“Did you see what happened at The Big?? everyone ok.”
I looked up from the screen and asked Tamar, “What happened at The Big?” But I already knew the answer. She answered, “I don’t know. Was there a terrorist attack?
I looked back at the screen and saw the replies coming in:
“We’re safe.”
“Safe”
“We r fine.”
Before checking the news, I added our own “Safe” to the list of replies.
The headline read:
“MDA: 4 fatalities in Be’er Sheva terrorist attack “
I told Tamar four people had just been murdered.
“That’s terrible. I can’t remember the last time there was an attack that bad.”
Next came to flood of messages from friends abroad, checking that we were safe.
According to police, the attacker first stabbed a woman to death at a gas station. Then he got into his car, rammed a cyclist, exited the vehicle, and continued stabbing people until an armed bus driver, and civilian shot him dead.
Before being shot, the video shows the terrorist lunging at the bus driver, knife in hand.
There is no occupation or land dispute in Be’er Sheva; it is well within the pre-1967 borders of Israel. I sympathize with the Palestinian narrative and hope that I will see a self-governed democratic Palestinian state one day.
And peace between our nations.
But stabbing an innocent woman to death at a gas station does not bring that day closer. Ramming a Rabbi on a bicycle does not bring that day closer. The senseless murder of civilians will not bring that day closer.
And there is something about the terrorist that we cannot forget. As Arthur Chaimov, the bus driver forced to shoot said following the incident:
“He’s a person, not an animal you need to kill … We’re human beings, we’re not animals … I’m sorry for him but he brought it on himself.”
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