FREE MARKET SOLUTION TO BUS ATTACKS

News Item:

A 60-year-old woman was killed Sunday morning when an Israeli Arab stabbed five Israelis in a service taxi in Petah Tiqwa.

Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the woman to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where she succumbed to her wounds.

Four other passengers were wounded in the incident. Two men in their 30s were listed in very serious and serious condition, while two other people were in moderate condition.

The 23-year-old attacker reportedly boarded the taxi in Petah Tiqwa. When it stopped near the Ossem factory on Rehov Jabotinsky, he pulled out a knife and began "wildly" stabbing the other passengers, eyewitnesses said.

Several passersby and workers from the factory surrounded the stabber, beat him with wooden planks, and restrained him. The man was taken into police custody and interrogated.

Police said that his motive appeared to be nationalistic.

What a pity that the State of Israel doesn't have the time, resources or manpower to deal with "minor attacks" such as this one. They simply don't have the personnel. The Israeli police are too busy galloping across the Samaritan hills, imposing law and order in the "lawless" Shomron, beating up unkempt settler children who want to live on unoccupied hilltops and raise goats.

Then, there's the matter of those vigilante passers-by who beat the alleged attacker with wooden planks. What sort of thing is that? It seems that even the staid citizens of Petah Tiqwa are becoming a bunch of wild-eyed anarchists as the state throws itself into the business of naked oppression at the expense of its alleged raison d'etre, keeping of the peace.

It would all be quite funny if someone's savta weren't lying dead in Petah Tiqwa.

So, how do we help prevent future attacks of this sort?

The answer is: allow individuals and companies to discriminate. The bus or cab driver is the first line of defense against terror attacks. He must be allowed to refuse any suspicious-looking fare, even if "suspicious" means looking "too Arabesque." Companies known to discriminate well will find themselves in great demand. Companies which habitually pass up our Yemenite and Sephardic brothers, fearing that they are "terrorists," will find themselves shunned by these communities. Very quickly, drivers will develop a keener eye. If not, other companies will enter the fray with drivers more adept at differentiating between wild-eyed Moslems and our darker complected brothers.

Another line of defense is to stop accepting cash fares on buses and sherut taxis. Accept only pre-paid tickets. This puts part of the responsibility for screening upon the cashier who can speak to the customer, detect a suspicious accent and request some sort of reliable ID (not necessarily a state-issued one). Tickets might also be purchased from automatic vending machines with pre-paid magnetic cards which could double as picture ID cards. Again, such pre-paid cards would be available only from trained cashiers.

Even our leftist friends, who wring their hands in concern over the transportation needs of the Arab community, might find these solutions interesting. After all, under a completely free market in public transportation, Arab drivers and companies could concentrate upon servicing the special needs of their communities -- even passing up us "sons-of-pigs-and-monkeys" if they so choose.

If Israeli public transportation were opened up to unlimited competition and the restrictions against discrimination lifted, we would very quickly find that we had safer, cheaper, and more responsive PT alternatives. Most importantly, we'd have fewer dead grandmothers on our cities' streets.