Travel Dangers in Judea vs Binyamin

The other week when traveling with my daughter and her daughters to Alon Shvut, Gush Etzion to see the play "Sisters," we noticed something very surprising to us. On the Gush Etzion part of Highway 60, unlike the Mateh Binyamin section of the same highway, there are bus stops.

thanks to Ruth Jaffe Lieberman

Security authorities in our area, Highway 60 from Adam to Eli, do not permit bus stops on the main road. There are trempiadas, places one can wait for rides or offer rides outside of communities like Ofra or at junctions like Shiloh and Eli, but no public bus is permitted to have stops there. We, the carless, have to decide at times whether or not to wait for a bus and possible tremp inside at a bus stop, or wait for a tremp where this is no chance a bus will stop.

In Gush Etzion, the trempiadas on the main road,  Highway 60, are also bus stops, which can make traveling easier, but there's a downside to this. Highway 60 is a popular venue for Arab terrorists. They take advantage of the lack of real protection for innocent Jews. It's very easy for them to shoot and stab, since they don't have to pass through a security check to get to the bus stop. And as we all know, many of the victims of Arab terror at the Gush Etzion bus stops had considered themselves careful since they weren't going to tremp.

I don't claim to be a security expert, and didn't serve in the IDF, but I've been living in Israel since 1970 and in Shiloh since 1981, and I'm also a terror attack survivor, injured, too. But it seems to me that life in Gush Etzion would be safer if they kept bus stops off of the road. At least it would be harder for the terrorists to reach/harm/kill innocent Israelis.