In the wake of Friday’s tragic shooting in Tel Aviv’s bustling city center – taking two lives and wounding ten – Israelis scramble for answers to an evolving and unpredictable security threat.
One libertarian-leaning member of Israel’s Parliament, Amir Ohana, says part of the solution is empowering more Israelis with the right to self-defense. His proposals aim to expand the number of people eligible to receive a gun permit. Ohana is the first openly gay Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party.
“I decided to take upon myself the issue of easing the permissions for citizens to carry firearms. If there is not yet a caucus in Parliament for this, I will create it. If it has been created, I will revive it,” declared MP Ohana.
These ‘lone wolf’ uncoordinated attacks continue to emanate largely from Palestinians living in the West Bank but also from Israel’s population of nearly two million Arab citizens, as a wave of 159 terror attacks in the last three months have killed 21 Israelis and wounded 272, mostly with knives and rammings with vehicles.
“It is difficult to fight terror that ripens in the mind of the attacker, as opposed to an organized terrorist infrastructure,” explained Ohana, who continued on to say that the two-fold response must begin with a war on incitement by Palestinian organizations, and secondly, “Reasonable allowances for citizens to defend themselves, and not to be slaughtered like sheep… Anyone who rises to kill you – kill him first.”
by Zach Huff
