Is Itamar a dangerous place to live? Is it a Makom Sakana that is worse than Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or even Chicago? I believe it is and have criticized religious Zionist leaders for insisting its people populate such areas. For them it is all about Yishuv Ha’aretz. Danger be damned! I am angered by that attitude and when I wrote about it – I was severely criticized. My view is that had the Fogels lived in a safer area, they would all still be alive today.
The retort was that no place in Israel is safe and that statistically more people die from Arab attacks in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem than they do in places like Itamar.
My response to that was to quote Mark Twain. There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies and statistics.
The question remains, is Itamar more dangerous than Tel Aviv or even Chicago? Here is what Itamar’s own religious Zionist mayor, Rabbi Moshe Goldsmith (pictured) had to say about it:
To be the mayor of Itamar is to be the mayor of a yishuv, a settlement of about 160 homes deep in the rocky Samarian highlands, where more Jews have died from Palestinian bullets, knives and bombs than have died of old age; 22 murdered Jews in the last 10 years, including five members of the Fogel family on March 11.
I rest my case.
