The story of Meir Rubin is horrific. Any man or woman whose hair didn't stand on end when they heard it should take a closer look.
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A dad was taking his two small children, ages three and six, for a camping trip on summer vacation. Out of nowhere, terrorists showed up and set several fires at the nature preserve. They also tried multiple times to get to the family and apparently murder them, even chasing them through the hills outside Jerusalem.
When Rubin eventually found a police car, the police office chose to check him out and at a certain point, instructed him to hit the gas and speed up, lest the terrorists get their hands on him, even though the police were between him and them at this stage.
Of course, this is a loose version of events.
Meir Rubin is the CEO of the Kohelet Forum, an honest man who loves the people and the land, a law-abiding citizen. At least, that's how I know him. You can't put him into the classic box of "religious settlers with kippas" who break the law and so on, as the media often does. This is a family man who went camping with his two young children, and criminals tried to kill him.
Of course, this points to a bigger problem: a lack of deterrence. But that's not what this piece is about. I'll leave that to experts on security and law enforcement, the various "former" officials.
What's more important is the strategy that can be extrapolated from the incident. This is how every MK and government minister should operate. This is a win-win situation. It will generate positive media coverage as well as practical steps by the government. Of course, the first person to really tackle the issue will benefit most. What needs to happen now is an unrestrained medic campaign that won't let this issue drop as time passes and will prompt MK and the cabinet to address the issue. Not only articles about and interviews with Meir, because he's already doing these.
All MKs need to bring their parliamentary tools to bear and flood the Knesset with the issue through questions, debates, letters, and more. This time, it's not the coalition vs. the Opposition. Both sides need to enlist and take action so that there is no repeat of the event. Coalition chairwoman MK Idit Silman would do well to convene a special committee meeting to discuss the case; Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy would do well to call a special discussion in the Knesset plenum, and the public security and justice ministers and even the Prime Minister's Office would do well to take practical steps about police work and changes to existing laws and regulations, as needed.
All this needs to happen, not because it's about Meir Rubin and not because it happened in the Jerusalem hills, but simply because of the realization that today, it happened to a certain person in a certain place, but it's the kind of thing that can happen to any citizen of Israel at any time. Just think what would have happened if the three-year-old or six-year-old had been harmed. What would the headlines be shrieking if they had? A warning light has been turned on that is alerting elected officials of the need to address the problem before something worse happens.
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