Israel Stories: With perfect faith

With unquestioning belief and with perfect faith Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Al Qaida's brave warriors (even the children, pregnant women and kids with Downs Syndrome) rush to strap explosives to themselves in order to indiscriminately murder Jews, Christians and Muslims anywhere and at anytime.

What it is to have perfect faith, something we can only aspire to. Of course it is not without its extreme hypocrisy but when you're the 'down trodden wretches of the Earth', you can get away with it.

Live by the sword, even if you firmly believe it will never happen to you and if it does there is such a fantastic reward that you almost hope it will. Confused?

Even if you live a relatively normal middle class existence it is still the principle that drives you to murder and once you've dehumanized your victims it is no longer relevant who they are or who you are. You are on a mission to kill and as they say in Israel, ze'ooh!

A few weeks ago I was waiting by the side of the road to cross with my kids. We saw cars speeding by drivers with no belts on and kids in the front and back with no belts on. Now we can't police the world and its very sad to see that these parents don't love their kids as much as maybe they should and also are not really aware of the serious consequences of their actions. A bit like Golda Meir's famous quote about peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us. Well drivers are the same, maybe they will strap their kids in and also have less disdain for everybody else on the road.

My kids, ever astute, commented on the way these drivers and their passengers young and old were not wearing belts. I told them they were lucky that their Imma and Abba always made sure everybody was strapped in and never took risks.

These drivers, I explained never think anything will happen to them. They have faith that they will be OK and they seem to ignore, or more than likely not care, about their fellow citizens.

Selfish, suicidal and stupid, you might get there quicker but it may be in the back of an ambulance.

So we are about to cross the road and a car very kindly stops for us. We begin to cross, cautiously, always aware of our surroundings. Meanwhile my kids were commenting on how nice it was that the lady stopped for us.

As we were exactly in the middle of the crossing a taxi came roaring up the hill, on a mission. Now taxi drivers are the most notorious of all of Israeli drivers and the simple fact that a car is blocking their way doesn't really seem relevant.

My kids have a favorite song called bear hunt. 'Going on a bear hunt, gonna catch a big one, uh,oh, mud. Can't go over it, can't go under it, gotta go through it'.

And so it was with the taxi. Can't go under the car in front, can't go over the car in front, what other alternative does he have,? To stop? No, of course not. Gotta go through it. And he did.

Smashing into the back of the nice lady that stopped for us, the taxi driver and his unbelted passenger both had a bugs eye view of the road hitting the windscreen, the lady jerked forward from the force of the collision, severely whip lashed, and in a reflex reaction, belying my age and build, that would have looked great in slow motion, I grabbed my kids and pulled them away and pushed them, almost throwing them onto the pavement.

I used to be laid back about the driving here. Be always mindful of your surroundings, or some other Star Wars quote, used to be my mantra. It's not you,  it's everyone else on the road.

But when more people in this country have died by the hands of their fellow citizens or themselves on the road than by the hands of their enemies it makes you think, who are we really fighting?