Terrorists

 

Friday my husband and I traveled to the Golan. On the way we passed through Beit Shean and remembered the terror attack from November 19, 1974. At that time, we were spending our “honeymoon” as volunteers on a nearby kibbutz. Since we were close to the then hostile Jordanian border security was tight. No one was allowed to approach the kibbutz’s fence by foot after dark. Guard duty was taken very seriously. I still remember the men dressed in prayer shawls holding their guns as they stood in the back of the synagogue and prayed. On that November day, fifty years ago, three terrorists infiltrated the border and made their way to an apartment building in Beit Shean. They murdered four Israelis before the security forces arrived and were able to eliminate them. More than twenty residents were injured, most of them by jumping to safety from second and third floor apartments. Before the army could stop the enraged crowd, they hurled the terrorists’ dead bodies out of the windows, poured petrol on them, and set them ablaze. Dead terrorists do not need our sympathy. Neither do living ones. They do not deserve good treatment in prison. They should not be able to complete their college education while incarcerated. It’s a disgrace that their families receive slay-for-pay benefits. Although not a not a politically correct statement, I believe the only good terrorist is a dead one.  Once dead their terror organizations have no reason to kidnap innocent children, women, and men in order to barter for the release of murderous criminals.