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Terror Attack Leaves Psagot Residents Wondering about Peace

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IDF troops near the site of the attack in Psagot
IDF troops near the site of the attack in Psagot
It was a frightening Saturday night for the residents of Psagot, a community of 1,800 people located in Judea and Samaria, north of Jerusalem. A Palestinian terrorist infiltrated into the community, firing from point-blank range at nine-year-old Noam Glick, who was playing on the balcony of her home. The girl was lightly wounded with gunshots to her neck and chest and was hospitalized in Jerusalem.

“It was the first time that something like this happened in Psagot,” said Liat Ofer, a 26-year-old resident of the community, who teaches in Jerusalem.

Noam’s father Yisrael Glick told Israel’s Army Radio that Noam managed to get back into the house after she was shot. “Noam told us there was an Arab man out there. I realized that this was a security incident. It’s the scariest thing that can happen here – to have a terrorist enter your home,” he said.

Down the street from the Glicks’ home, Liat Ofer had put her 5-year-old son to sleep. “It was a frightening situation,” she told Tazpit News Agency. “When the terrorist entered the neighborhood, my husband wasn’t home at the time and I was responsible for my child and myself,” she said.

“We (the residents) immediately received SMS messages about the incident and were told to close the shutters of our windows and stay in the more secure, inner areas of our homes.”

“I placed my son in our bedroom because it’s the safest room and he couldn’t fall asleep for the next two hours,” Ofer said. “I tried to remain as calm as possible, but he could sense my worry.”

Residents in Psagot were instructed to stay indoors throughout Saturday night, October 5 and were allowed to exit the community only at 5 am the next morning.

Psagot consists of 320 families and over 1,000 children.

“We are a very strong and tight-knit community,” said David Tzviel, the spokesperson for Psagot. He told Tazpit News Agency that residents were not optimistic about the current peace negotiations. “We are counting the days until the next attack happens – we are fortunate that this incident ended in a miracle,” he said. “We can see our neighbors don’t want peace,” Tzviel said, pointing out Fatah’s official Facebook page which praised the Palestinian attacker on Sunday.

“What kind of partners are these for peace?” the Psagot spokesperson asked. “These terrorists need to be treated like al-Qaeda.”

As for Liat Ofer, the young mother says that the terror incident will not make her move away. “I grew up in Psagot and we’ve had difficult times in the past – we were constantly targeted by gunfire during the Second Intifada,” she says.

“However, our army and community security forces responded quickly and efficiently to this attack and I feel safe because of their work,” Ofer explains.

“But I hope this terror attack remains a one-time incident.”

Meanwhile, Israel National News reported that on Sunday, Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) said in an interview on Sunday that following the terror attack at Psagot, his ministry will strengthen and enlarge the community.

Minister Ariel noted that he went to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital at around 1:00 a.m., where he spoke with Noam Glick, and her parents. “She is a great heroine,” he said. “She did not lose her wits despite this terrible and scary thing. She spoke and she identified [the terrorist],” he said.

Ariel, who is a Kohen (of priestly descent), blessed the girl and her parents with the blessing of the Kohanim.

Ariel said he does not see the current situation as a “third intifada.” Such a definition would be proper, he said, if the wave of violence had a large scale organizational infrastructure, which is not the case.

“Intifada,” an Arabic term meaning “shaking off the yoke,” has been used to describe a violent uprising in 1987-1993 and a murderous terror war in 2000-2009 that killed 1,178 Israelis, 70% of them civilians, in over 20,000 attacks that included 144 suicide bombings.

The minister did say that the current violence is a problem that requires that the government “stop, think anew, reach conclusions and see how we continue.”

The attempts to carry on as if nothing is happening is misguided, he said, and causes the other side to believe that it can carry on with the terrorism, “and in this I include Jerusalem, where there are hundreds of [violent] events every month,” he said. “This is unbearable and unreasonable,” he said.

Ariel said that he has met with the prime minister and hopes to see changes in the pattern of events soon.

He also rejected the claims that the recent terror attacks are not the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its head, Mahmoud Abbas (“Abu Mazen”). “This is a wide ranging thing,” he said. “The same ‘Abu’ is not denouncing and the same ‘Mazen’ is not taking action to arrest terrorists but only making poses.”

Ariel said that when he promises to strengthen and enlarge Psagot, he means it. “When someone seeks to uproot us, we immediately dig in and send out deeper roots. That is what will happen in Psagot.” He challenged Arutz Sheva to follow up on his promise and see if he makes good on it.

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