This article originally appeared in Israel Hayom on December 30, 2024.
Friday, December 27, 2024, 9:30 a.m. Tiran Square in Herzliya is peaceful. In the shopping center, the neighborhood residents are quietly shopping for Shabbat. Just a few hours ago, in the cold, dark night, they were running to shelters, suddenly awakened by warnings screaming from everywhere. A new ballistic missile launch from Yemen had just been intercepted by the air defenses… It is winter, the rain is starting to fall, the wind is blowing, the sea is rough, the path to the Carrefour supermarket is covered in puddles… Suddenly, horrible, heartbreaking screams, calls for help, gunshots ring out. There is panic, brutal anguish, fear in the stomach, people are running in all directions, hiding behind cars, in stores… The terrible nightmare of October 7th is resurfacing… Islamist terrorism is at our doorstep… In Herzliya, the city that bears the name of the founder of Zionism.
In front of the absorption center for new retired immigrants, mostly from Russia, we witness a horrible scene. A young man, wearing glasses, violently attacks an octogenarian. She collapses but the assailant persists, shouting Allah Akbar, with unbearable cruelty, he stabs the victim incessantly. Like a demon, he strikes this innocent lady, without any pity, cowardly, several stab wounds to the heart, to the stomach … the blood flows …
Ludmilla Lipovsky, 83, a Holocaust survivor in Europe, is brutally murdered by a Palestinian from Tulkarem, here in Israel, in the center of the country, in Herzliya, on Shoah Martyrs Street…
We later learn that the terrorist was a former Shin Beit informant. He had received a special permit to stay in Israel… Incredible but true.
How can the Israeli services blindly trust rehabilitated attackers, repeat offenders who have served several years in prison?
At a time when Hamas refuses any compromise and demands the release of hundreds of terrorists, also perpetrators of the horrible massacre of October 7, 2023, in exchange for the hostages held in Gaza, the Israeli government will have to take security measures first. Strengthen and improve the intelligence services and the police. Create an effective gendarmerie and ensure public order in the streets, in front of establishments, in shops, and restaurants…
We are living a war of attrition on several fronts, with no end in sight. Despite the truce in Lebanon, tensions are still high and Iran is trying to rearm Hezbollah. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the new government in Damascus is not reassuring and risks triggering a new civil war. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas is omnipresent and is still capable of launching rockets and missiles. The Houthis, 2,000 km from our borders, are relentlessly continuing to fire ballistic missiles.
The monstrous attack in Herzliya is a reminder that the conflict with the Arab Muslims is not only about territories and the solution of the Palestinian problem. On this complicated and permanent conflict, religious considerations have been grafted, pushed to the paroxysm of all the violence and hostilities.
Foreign media reports say that stabbing attacks are committed by “lone wolves.” The majority of attackers are young Muslims, Palestinians or Israeli Arabs, who seem to be acting outside an organized structure. How can we ignore the religious and nationalist factors that often act as triggers for violence?
No! There are no “lone wolves,” and their actions are neither road accidents nor incidents committed by insane or mentally ill people. Their actions are the result of incitement to hatred of Jews spread by fanatical social networks but also of the laxity of the Israeli authorities. The Shin Beit and the police will have to provide urgent responses to this scourge in order to finally ensure absolute security for all citizens of the country.
The new year 2025 is unpredictable but decisive for the future of the Jewish state. The government will have to act firmly and coordinate its actions closely with President Donald Trump. Take bold and concrete initiatives together on all levels and fronts, without harboring unnecessary illusions and without ignoring the painful mistakes of the past.
