The van filled with terrorists left Hawawa and headed north toward the community of Itamar and the small hilltop where 12 Jewish families lived almost unprotected against attack. At the intersection before Shechem a truck sped out from a side road and stopped in front of the van blocking the way. As the driver honked on his horn impatiently he saw Israeli soldiers hurry out from a car parked across the way. “Soldiers,” he called out to his comrades. Two of the terrorists hurried out from the van Before they could raise their rifles a roar of bullets cut them down. Bullets smashed through the van windshield killing the driver. As he was running toward the van, one of the soldiers, Avi, saw a sedan stop fifty yards down the road. A terrorist jumped out from the car holding a rifle. Avi dropped to his knee, aimed, and shot the terrorist before he could shoot. Soldiers behind him sprayed the vehicle with bullets. Within seconds there was no movement in the van nor in the car. Quiet fell over the intersection. Avi reached the car first. Stopping ten meters away, he made sure that the Arabs in the vehicle were dead. He moved forward with his rifle aimed. When he opened the front door, a bloodied terrorist fell out onto the road. Noticing a piece of paper on the dashboard he lifted it as other soldiers opened the back doors. A map of the givah was sketched on one side, with boxes indicating the caravans of the yishuv and stick figures indicating the number of people who lived in each home. The guard post of the yishuv was roughly drawn and the location of doghouses. On the other side of the page the plan of attack was written in Arabic. Avi knew the language well. Slaughter all of the Jews. Behead the men and sever their limbs. Rape as many women as possible. Photograph the victims. Take all children hostage.
Quickly Avi photographed both sides of the paper with his cellphone and stuffed it into his pocket. Later after the scene had been cleared he handed the plan to his commander.
“I found this in the car,” he said. “It’s the plan of the attack. It will make you sick to read it. Thank G-d we were able to thwart the massacre.”
In the days that followed, Avi scanned Internet news sites expecting to discover headlines about the document he had found in the car. While coverage was given to the foiled attack, the paper detailing the goals of the terrorists wasn’t mentioned. When a full week passed without a word in the media about the paper detailing the gruesome plan, Avi approached his superior.
“What happened to the paper I gave you with the attack plan” Avi inquire. “Don’t you think it strange that nothing was mentioned about it in the media?”
“I passed it on to command. What happens after that isn’t my business,” his unit commander responded.
“But the public should know about it,” Avi protested. “They have to know that the Arabs in Yosh are just like Hamas.”
“They are Hamas,” his commander admitted.
“So we have to do something.”
“You did what you could do. I did what I had to do. That’s the end of it. We are only soldiers. Other people deal with the media. As the golden rule teaches: ‘A small head.’ If you want to remain in the army forget about it.”
“This kind of thing can’t be hid from the public!” Avi protested again.
“Forget you ever saw the damn thing.”
“I can’t do that. You know that we have to increase the army’s presence in the area to insure the safety of the settlers. Exposing this plan could bring the public pressure on the government forcing them to take the necessary measures.”
“Keep out of politics if you want to remain in the army.”
“I have a photograph of the document which I made with my phone,” Avi revealed.
His commander paused, absorbing this new information.
Avi waited for a response. “Destroy it,” the commander told him. “Be smart.”
A bad feeling stayed with Avi throughout the day. He understood the advice of his commander. In one way he was right. But in another way it felt wrong. Soldiers were expected to defend Jewish lives, even at the cost of their lives. Was a career in the army more important than that?
At the end of the day, hoping it would help him relax, Avi took a hot shower. When he returned to his room his telephone was gone. It wasn’t under the pillow where he always left it. It wasn’t in his pants or jacket pocket. His telephone and the photographs of the terrorist plan were gone.
