Another World, A Different Danger/Terrorism

It took me about 24 hours door to door to travel from Shiloh, Israel to Phoenix, Arizona.

My son-in-law picked me up before 4am, and we traversed the empty roads which made Shiloh feel even closer to BG International Airport aka TLV.  We shot through Petach Tikva without stopping at a single light, which had him in shock.  It's a good reminder how small Israel is.

I took BA British Airways to Heathrow.  I think that Heathrow Airport is larger than most Israeli cities.  It's probably larger than the entire southern Shomron area, from Tapuach, Ariel to Elkana and Oranit.  Or as large as Rosh Haayin to Petach Tivka inclusive.  I had to take trains and buses to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5.  I had time and wonder how I'll make the connection back, since I won't have as much time.  Maybe I should request to fly "handicapped" and get driven and wheeled....  I'm very tempted.

People were very polite all and all.  British security didn't pay attention to my scarf and skirt.  Israeli security never does.  The American agriculture border inspector decided that I was the perfect candidate to have brought in foreign fruit.  When I admitted it, they confiscated my clean wrapped apples.  So this morning I had an apple from the complimentary breakfast at the motel.

News?  I turned on the television in the motel looking for news.  All I found was local news, two accidents.  One was caused by a deranged passenger on the bus from LA to Phoenix.  He lost his mind, was angry or whatever and attacked the driver shouting that he wanted to flip the bus over and kill everyone, or at least himself.  Somehow he was stopped, and the driver did his best to control the bus although many were injured.  Photos were shown of the passenger in custody in a police van seeming very agitated.

I find that event terribly frightening.  Many, many people think that I live in a dangerous part of the world, but I don't think it's any more dangerous than any place else.  In many ways it's safer to be in Shiloh, Israel.  Certainly we do have dangers here.  There are Arab terrorists and international anti-Israel anarchists who are willing to do anything to kill and destroy us, but the sort of unpredictable attack  that happened on that bus, or those school and other shootings that happen without any sort of warning in America are pretty much unheard of in Israel.  The closest things we have are family tragedies, which have been happening of late.  That's when an angry husband or ex-husband murders his wife or a parent murders his/her child.

These are tragedies, but they don't endanger the general public.

IMHO Israel is most endangered by the politicians who refuse to accept the reality that the world would prefer us to be in the "past tense."  They would prefer, or just don't care if the State of Israel be relegated to history, to an annex in the Holocaust Museums going up all over the world.  Yes, that's my basic philosophy of life here as a Jew, as an Israeli.  I don't see any difference in the attitude of the world between today and the 1930's when everyone with few exceptions paid any attention to Hitler's plans.

Ignoring reality is dangerous.  It's much too easy for people, including Jews to sit in their "safe" sic cocoons and pretend that they are disconnected or disengaged from what is happening in Israel and in the United Nations.

We must open our eyes, ears and minds to accept the unpleasant truth.