Extra Security Checks for Rami Levy, Sha'ar Binyamin

Rami Levy has set up metal detectors at the branch in Sha'ar Binyamin, and if I'm not mistaken in Gush Etzion and possibly other places. Even before that there have been guards and the place is fenced off and has security cameras all over.

You'd think that people (the Jewish shoppers) would be happy and cooperative.

But I've observed a lot of people getting nasty and refusing to go through the special gate or to let the guards touch their bags for inspections. And the guards are on edge from the rudeness. It is definitely not pleasant to witness this behavior. Oh, in case you're wondering, yes, I'm talking about the Jewish customers, not the Arabs who wouldn't dare make a fuss.

People wouldn't dare make a fuss about security anyplace else!

Yesterday, on the way to work, when we got to the Sha'ar Binyamin gate, a soldier entered the bus to check. Honestly, people on my bus aren't the problem. They really should be checking all the cars and passengers.

And don't forget that Rami Levy/Yafiz is the only store in the area with extra guards and security to get in plus plainclothes security. All other stores and malls in Sha'ar Binyamin just rely on the main gate guards. And there are other Arab workers and customers around Sha'ar Binyamin besides those in Rami Levy/Yafiz.

And to remind you that there are Arabs shopping and working all over Israel. There's hardly a mall, store or restaurant without Arab staff/customers. I've been working in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin for over five years, and I don't consider it any more dangerous than any place else.

Bibi, Neither Cameras nor Obama Will Protect Us!

This morning I feel like ranting! Here goes:

Bibi, your solution to Arab violence of placing "cameras on all West Bank roads" is a very ineffective Ehud Barak gadget scam rather than offering true protection to innocent Israelis. By the time the attack is viewed and reported by the teams at the screens, the terrorists will have effectively escaped and the victims could bleed to death.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on tour of West Bank. (photo credit:AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)

And besides that, it's very well-known that a high percentage of such cameras have been damaged and stolen by the Arab terrorists. The method is not new, nor has it been proven effective.

spy balloon over Shevut Rachel and the smaller communities around it
Photo: Batya Medad 

Or is the plan to have lots of these spy balloons in the sky focused on Arab terror, rather than trying to catch the mythical Jewish "price tag" cells? Even if these cameras aren't easily stolen, there's no speedy solution to the terrorism here.

Arab terrorism must be stopped not mopped with the blood up after the attack takes place.

Yet again, the United Nations' Ban Ki-moon unabashedly condemns death of Arab terrorists and terror-supporters while ignoring innocent Jewish victims of Arab terror.

United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon.
(photo credit:REUTERS)

Ban said he did not believe that the demolition of homes belonging to Palestinian terrorists or the construction of new Israeli settlements "will do anything other than inflame tensions still further."
Ban acknowledged the death of four Palestinians, referring to a 13-year-old boy whom the IDF said was accidentally killed by misfire and three terrorists who were killed by security forces following attacks that killed four Israelis. (Jerusalem Post) 

Why does Israel continue membership in that hot-bed of anti-Israel/pro-Arab terrorism? I find it incomprehensible. They will not change, no matter who is our ambassador to the UN, nor how well-written and incredibly delivered our speeches there.

And for the umpteenth time, Bibi has capitulated to American demands and will not approve more Jewish building in Judea and Samaria.

Building a bus terminal in Sha'ar Binyamin
Photo: Batya Medad

New homes being built
in Ariel
Photo: Batya Medad 

According to senior-level Israeli officials, the US Administration passed on a threatening message to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, according to which if Israel were to approve an expansion of settlement construction in the West Bank, the US would not veto a UN Security Council proposal that deems Israeli settlements are illegal.

This makes no sense to me, because de facto by not building Israel is delegitimatizing its sovereignty and rights in the Land of Israel, even in parts of it that Israel considers as "consensus" that will "remain Israeli," sic.

I find it so incomprehensible that while Israel is such a strong, successful advanced country, with a vibrant and healthy economy and advanced and affordable medical care, our politicians fearfully kowtow to our enemies, those who would rather see an Arab terror state aka Palestine here instead of the State of Israel.

Those Hidden Cameras, Catching the Boston Marathon Bombers, Almost Like the Book "Act of Treason"

Innocuous, hidden cameras are all around us.  I tell customers who are dressing/trying on clothes or undressing/dressing their kids in a corner of the store where I work that there are people watching and filming them.  It's actually no secret that there are cameras all around.  There's a screen alternating the various camera feeds for all to see at the קופה ראשית Cupah Roshit, "mini-office," customer relations corner in between the entrance and exit of the Sha'ar Binyamin Rami Levy supermarket.  They've recently upgraded to color from blurry black and white, so I asked jokingly to the manager of the shift if I should now start worrying about wearing makeup to work.

Just a couple of days ago when the American security authorities began asking the public who had been taking pictures of the Boston Marathon at the time of the bombing for all pictures, still and moving, so they could try to get a filmed record of what happened and who could have left the bombs, I thought of a book I had recently read, Act of Treason by Vince Flynn.

In Flynn's book, the fact that someone had placed himself behind a pole (or was it a tree?) at the time of the fatal explosion made one of investigators suspicious and ended up being the key to the successful investigation.  That summary of the book doesn't do it justice.  I did enjoy reading it but had to throw it out, since my copy was old and falling apart.  Who would have thought that just a couple of months after I had read the book, it would be so timely?

Most of us are totally oblivious to the fact that in today's world there are security cameras all over.  And even if there aren't security cameras, there are other cameras filming us.  I remember reading that a philanderer was caught cheating when his wife saw him with another woman when they were watching the then popular Woody Allen movie Annie Hall.  Allen had filmed some real life street scenes, without asking each and every person's permission and inadvertently included that man driving around with his lover.

Some food for thought...
Someone is watching us all of the time.  Why are we more afraid of being filmed and spied on by humans than the fact that G-d sees, hears and knows everything we do, all places and all times?  We can't hide from G-d, even though men can't always catch and punish the guilty...