RUTHFULLY YOURS

In 2015, Israel once again came under terrorist attack from Palestinians desperate to erase Jews from the land they’ve inhabited continuously for 3,800 years. Unlike past terrorist attacks, which mostly relied on suicide bombs in restaurants and buses or on rocket attacks from afar, this was a more personal type of terrorism: Palestinians walking down the street or shopping in stores would suddenly pull out long knives and savagely stab anyone within reach. It was called “the knife intifada.”

But what happens in Israel doesn’t stay in Israel. In some ways, you can consider Israel a testing ground for terrorist tactics that Jihadists intend to use against others around the world – and it’s clear with Sunday’s “terrorist-related” knife attack in the Streatham neighborhood in London that the knife intifada has fully arrived in England.

The Palestinians haven’t been shy about using knives to wage war on Jews. Here’s a grim photograph from 1947 — before there was an Israel, before there were 1967 lines, and before the PLO had even formed — showing an Arab stabbing a Palestinian journalist, while the British soldiers took a photograph, but did not bother to help:

Here are two videos to remind you what began to happen in Israel five years ago:

These attacks are still happening, although they’re less common. What probably changed this is the fact that Israel loosened its tight gun control laws:

When the knife intifada erupted in September 2015, the Israeli government’s response was to ease the process for the civilian populace to obtain weapons. After a particularly bloody Jerusalem shooting attack that killed four, then-Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan drastically changed the gun laws in order to significantly raise the number of armed civilians on the streets. Instantly, graduates of Special Forces units and IDF officers with the rank of Lieutenant and above were permitted to purchase guns at their will, security guards were allowed to bring their guns home after work, and the minimum age for a license was reduced from 21 to 18.

Erdan explained that “civilians well trained in the use of weapons provide reinforcement in the struggle against terrorism”, while Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called for every resident to carry a gun, and was even photographed traveling the city carrying a Glock 23.

In addition, the overwhelming majority of terror attacks in Israel are stopped by armed civilians, not law enforcement. For example, the terrorists in the 2016 Sarona market attack were stopped by armed passersby. A pistol-carrying tour guide put an end to the 2017 ramming attack in Arnona that left four soldiers dead.

Meanwhile, England has experienced its second terrorist-inspired knife attack in two months. On November 29, 2019, a known potential terrorist armed only with a knife killed two people on London Bridge. Then, on Sunday, February 2, 2020, Sudesh Amman, whom police already considered a “person of interest”, decided to go to town with a knife:

Sudesh Amman, 20 — who was shot and killed after the 2 p.m. attack in Streatham in south London — had been let out of lockup a week ago, where he was serving time for charges of disseminating and possession documents containing terrorist information, the BBC reported.

He was released after serving only part of his three-year-and-four-month sentence, according to The Guardian.

Amman came to the attention of counter-terrorism authorities in April when investigators learned of postings on a messaging app, which included a photo of a knife, two guns and a Shahada flag with the Arabic words for “Armed and ready April 3,” the outlet said.

Amman donned a fake suicide vest and then, after grabbing a convenient knife from a shop, stabbed three people, one of whom is in critical condition. The police killed Amman.

While London has had two terrorist knife attacks in two months, the rest of Europe is not immune. In Ghent, Belgium, just minutes after the knife attack in Streatham, a knifeman stabbed two people on a busy street before officers were able to control him. It’s not clear whether this latest continental attack is terrorist inspired, but it’s a certainty that Islamic immigrants have imported to the West their preference for using knives to settle disputes, both personal and political.

Europe and England stubbornly deny that Islamists are at war with them. This means that they’ll be equally stubborn in refusing to arm their citizens to fight this war. When there’s an active war going on, but only one side is armed and fighting, it’s a dead certainty which side will win and which side will lose.