by Paul Dragu, The New American:
On October 7, the world was shocked, angered, and saddened to learn that a small army of barbarians living like sardines in a 25-mile stretch of desert broke through Israel’s usually impenetrable southern border and killed more than a thousand Jewish civilians.
But the emotion that seemed to take up the most real estate in Western hearts was moral shock at the animalistic brutality of the Hamas terrorists. It didn’t matter how harmless the Jews they came across were, or that they posed no physical threat. Hamas killed them. The few they let live were taken hostage.
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Hamas terrorists killed indiscriminately. It was as if they were playing a round of Grand Theft Auto. The goal was to mow down as many people as possible. Old people, children, women — it didn’t matter. They were Jews, that’s what counted.
They also paraded women they had just raped through the streets of Gaza like captured exotic animals, as Palestinian onlookers cheered their approval. Hamas terrorists made video recordings of themselves desecrating dead Jewish bodies and posted them on the internet. And during their entire murderous rampage, they laughed about it.
These are not people, these are animals, commentators noted. Israeli officials referred to Hamas terrorists as savages. Ben Shapiro put it accurately and succinctly: This is what evil looks like.
After the surprise attack, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made a move to arm more Israeli civilians. On October 8, he said in a post on X, “Today I directed the Firearms Licensing Division to go on an emergency operation, in order to allow as many citizens as possible to arm themselves.”
Oddly enough, Israel, a country literally surrounded by enemies that have for generations tried to wipe them off the face of the planet, makes it difficult for its citizens to arm themselves. For thousands of years, Jews have endured persecution and attempts at complete annihilation. One of those attempts happened within recent memory — we have witnesses and documentation, including photos of dead Jews stacked up like piles of chopped wood. Yet, despite every Jew being born with the knowledge of its embattled existence, the nation’s leaders do not consider easy access to effective self-defense means a natural right. The New York Times reported, “The United States considers handgun ownership a constitutionally protected right, while Israel considers gun permits a privilege, granted by the Ministry of Public Security strictly on the basis of need.”
This is bonkers.
According to Israel’s Ministry of National Security, citizens who want personal firearms need to meet several requirements, including citizenship or permanent residency, fluency in Hebrew, the minimum age, clearance from a doctor, and complete firearms training. While those requirements may seem reasonable to some (not me), that’s only the beginning. Israelis also need to make a case for why they “need” a firearm. And once they satisfy that inane criterion, they must adhere to restrictions on how many firearms and how much ammunition they can own. In most cases, the weapon allowed is a pistol with a limit of fifty bullets. Fifty! Many Americans can find that many bullets by cleaning out their pickup. Furthermore, in Israel, the government grants a license only for a specific firearm, and if you want another firearm, you need another license.
This has proven to be a lethally stupid approach. In the week after the attack, stories already emerged proving that had Israelis been more armed, the body count would’ve been lower. The Times reported on the Levi family, who hid in a room with a reinforced door. When the terrorists sprayed it with bullets, Mr. Levi shot back through the holes. Eventually, the terrorists moved on to easier targets, which tragically proved easy to find. This is universally true of predators — they target the weak and defenseless.
Given the latest holocaust, maybe the country’s firearms laws will now change. There are signs that Israel’s leadership is beginning to understand the error of its ways. Ben-Gvir announced on October 10 that his ministry is buying 10,000 rifles to arm civilian security teams, specifically those in towns close to Israel’s borders, as well as mixed Jewish-Arab cities and West Bank settlements.
But it sounds like they are still missing the point. All law-abiding Israelis should be able to buy a firearm — whenever they’d like and with ease. It should not matter where they live, and they shouldn’t have to justify their “need” for one. Law-abiding Israelis should be able to walk into a gun store, pick out the firearm of their choice, mention to the clerk that they plan to use it as a paperweight, pass a quick criminal background check, and go home with a firearm and plenty of bullets. This is how it works in America, despite efforts to change that.
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