Guns, Or Lack of Them, In Israel

After the atrocities perpetrated in Israel this last week, questions arise about how such an intelligence failure could have occurred, how the Israeli military, which is assumed by many to be ubiquitous, did not do a better job at more quickly and effectively repelling the invasion, and perhaps most perplexing of all, why families and towns in close proximity to a territory run by terrorists did not seem to have the means for self-defense.

Thomas Jefferson made the point over 200 years ago that it is the right and duty of citizens to be at all times armed. How much more so for a people not protected by an Atlantic ocean but within view of terrorists who want them dead?

Are the people of Israel subjects and not citizens?

Imagine the difference it would have made in the 1930s and ‘40s in Nazi Germany and elsewhere in Europe (or anywhere else, genocide was perpetrated, for that matter) if Jewish individuals and families were able and willing to fight back. Although one could argue that the Jewish mindset in Germany at that time was one of complacency or resignation, as the prior 1800-plus years of the diaspora was a repressive history of exile, abuse, murder, and massacre. Ever since the Romans’ final suppression of Israelite resistance in the 130s, the Jews were largely a defenseless people subject to the whims or depredations of their “host” countries.

Not anymore. Or do we have to say never again – again?

Because of images of Israeli defense forces carrying their weaponry on the streets, much of the world likely believes gun ownership is common or even proliferates in Israel. But such is not the case. With the exception of active military, police, and personnel in security services, only single-digit percentages out of a private citizen Jewish population of over seven million are licensed to have a firearm. That fact is an unforgivable oversight and should never have been the case. In a country where virtually all young adults go through compulsory conscription, almost all families have members trained to use firearms. So why isn’t there a means of self-defense in every household?

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