Army Life: Dilemmas at checkpoints

My last entry A Moral Army, generated many passionate responses, and I feel it necessary to add some context to the scene that I described at the checkpoint.
 
Wafa Biss, a resident of the Gaza town of Jabalya suffered severe burns in a cooking accident in her home in January of 2005. She received medical care at Soroka Hospital in the southern Israeli town of Be'ersheva. As an out-patient, Wafa was granted permission by the IDF to exit Gaza to complete her medical treatment.  On June 21st of that year, Biss was arrested at the Erez Crossing leading out of Gaza with 10 kilograms of explosives in her possession. Her own words speak for themselves: "My dream was to be a martyr. I believe in death," she said. "Today I wanted to blow myself up in a hospital, maybe even in the one in which I was treated. But since lots of Arabs come to be treated there, I decided I would go to another, maybe the Tel Hashomer [Hospital], near Tel Aviv. I wanted to kill 20, 50 Jews. Yes, even babies."
 
The Palestinian medical services have also abused their privileges as medical practitioners to carry out terrorist attacks. On January 27th, 2002 a medical secretary for the Palestinian Red Crescent, Wafa Idris, detonated herself in downtown Jerusalem murdering 81-year-old Pinhas Tokatli and wounding scores of bystanders. Two other Red Crescent members were believed to have played a role in carrying out the bombing.
 
Red Crescent ambulances themselves have become a part of the Palestinian terror infrastructure. In 2001, a Palestinian ambulance driver from the town of Kalkilya confessed to using his ambulance and the freedom of movement privileges that came with it, to transport weapons to Hamas terrorists. The following year, soldiers stopped a Red Crescent ambulance near Ramallah and discovered that the vehicle was loaded with explosives. Also in 2002, Israel seized documents that revealed the widespread use of Red Crescent ambulances to transport weapons and to ferry wanted terrorists to safe haven. [Click here to see report]
 
Palestinian attempts to use medicine to kill rather than to heal have not been limited to the Red Crescent.  On April 19th, 2007 Gaza resident and Doctors Without Borders member Mazab Bashir was arrested by Israel. Using his IDF issued work permit to reach Jerusalem, Bashir planned to assassinate leading Israeli figures, including Members of Knesset, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the head of a Jewish group that purchases homes in Arab neighborhoods of the city.
 
As for the checkpoints themselves, they exist in an almost parallel universe. They exist in a world where explosives are found in body bags and strapped to the chests of 14 year-olds and women. Certainly, one must feel compassion for the innocent Palestinian delayed while awaiting medical treatment. 

Next time you think of a checkpoint though, think of the Israeli 18-year-old who left a world where the sight of a pregnant woman elicits blessings of good health and an easy delivery and entered a world where a pregnant women and the young child at her side potentially represent a clear and present danger. At the checkpoint, he lives in a world where every bone in his body tells him to let the pregnant woman through, but knows that he must check her because if he doesn't, she just might kill the pregnant woman in Tel Aviv who he helped while on his way to the checkpoint.