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Life During Wartime
(Wall Street Journal) Bret Stephens - Between January 2002, when I moved to Israel, and October 2004, when I left, there were 85 suicide bombings, which took the lives of 543 Israelis. Palestinian gun attacks claimed hundreds of additional victims. In a small country it meant that most everyone knew one of those victims, or knew someone who knew someone. Israelis recoiled after each bombing, mourned every victim, then picked themselves up. What's the lesson here for Americans? One is that there is a benefit for a society that allows competent and responsible adults to carry guns, like the off-duty police officer who shot the knife-wielding jihadist in St. Cloud, Minn. Another is that there is an equal benefit in the surveillance methods that allowed police in New York and New Jersey to swiftly identify and arrest Ahmad Khan Rahami before his bombing spree took any lives.