16-Jul-15: Innocent-looking young women are not always

The "suspected" "activist"
who "allegedly" carried out the stabbing attack
[Image Source: An Arabic language source] 

We have no first-hand experience of it, but it's fairly obvious that standing guard at a security checkpoint can be a trying experience, not to mention a dangerous one.

A young Israeli doing his national service with the IDF at a security checkpoint was stabbed in the back yesterday (Wednesday) near the community of Nahliel. Ynet says he was serving with the Netzah Yehuda battalion.

The attacker is identified by the IDF Spokesperson's office as Rawan Abu Matar, a 22 year old female from Beitillu [but this Arab source says she is 17], one of the Arab villages located close to Nahliel. She is now in the hands of the security officials for interrogation. Ynet says she confessed that her intention was to murder a soldier.

The young soldier is reported to be in Tel Hashomer where he is being treated for light-to-moderately-serious knife wounds. We don't have his name.

How much easier life would be for people who want to live constructive, peaceful lives if the neighbours with heads filled with Ramadan messages of vengeance, violence and bloodshed wore badges or stickers on their foreheads. But they don't - which is something to keep in mind when criticisms are sounded from hostile sources about what are sometimes called the disrespectful ways Israel's security apparatus deals with keeping the population unharmed.

A few moments earlier: same place, same young woman
[Image Source: Another Arab website]

Nahliel, a modest village-scale community in Israel's Mateh Binyamin Regional Council region, describes itself via Wikipedia as a "warm, Torah-centered community, a place where it is fun to live". It is home to about 80 families, most of them Haredi, and is located some 20 kilometers north of the capital, Jerusalem.

Netzah Yehuda is a battalion in the Kfir Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. It was formed in 1999 to allow religious Israelis to serve in the IDF "in an atmosphere conducive to their religious convictions, within a framework that is strictly halachically observant" [Wikipedia]. Its motto "V'haya Machanecha Kadosh", "And your [military] camp shall be holy", is based on scripture (Deuteronomy 23:12).