I did security outside shul last Shabbat. This is an experience which is very new to me since in Radlett I am regarded as being “otherwise engaged” and not liable for such duties.

To begin with I wondered whether it was not an unnecessary knee-jerk reaction. Unlike Jerusalem, Netanya and its areas are almost exclusively Jewish and the nearest Arab towns are either on the Green Line (the pre-1967 borders) or even across it in places like Tulkarem. There are Arabs who work in Netanya – my pharmacist is one – but they are a relative rarity.

Then I remembered the Park Hotel bombing on Seder night 2002. The hotel stands at the corner of the street where I live and the events of that night are a very vivid memory. If that could happen in Netanya then it could happen anywhere and I went to do my security very willingly.

In any case security is common everywhere in Israel. There are armed guards outside my grandchildren’s schools, and having to pass security before you go into the local supermarket is normal.

My friends in Jerusalem say that they no longer go to supermarkets where the butchers are Arabs. No matter how long they have worked there, they would rather that the cleavers were wielded by Jews.

Their daughter, who used to opt for her groceries to be delivered at home as this saved her time and trouble with small children, no longer does so. The delivery boys are Arabs and she would rather not have them in her house especially when her husband isn’t home.

The trouble is of course that if we are ever to achieve peace we will have to be able to deal comfortably with Arabs, and the actions of an Arab minority are making this increasingly difficult.

Israel is beginning to get nervous about the actions of both extremist Arabs and extremist Jews in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Arab terrorism and’s Jewish settler response are not going to go away so long as there is no peace treaty (and perhaps not even afterwards) but their ability to destroy the fragile modus vivendi that exists for most of the time is worrying.

Very early this morning Wednesday 12^th November a mosque was torched in Ramallah. Instant retaliation has of course been threatened, and presumably something may happen. At the same time there is a worrying trend in knife attacks from lone terrorists. An air force sergeant was stabbed to death at the Hagana railway station in Tel Aviv on Monday, and on the same day a young woman was attacked and killed at a bus stop in the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion. Such attacks are difficult to predict and very difficult to stop, and receive considerable publicity. Although there is more knife crime in London, Jews are news.

There is a very worrying Bill before the Knesset which aims to close down a free newspaper called Yisrael Hayom. This is funded by the American Sheldon Adelson who also contributes heavily to Republican funds. The newspaper is generally regarded as Netanyahu’s mouthpiece (terms used in the Knesset were considerably less reasoned) and because its advertising rates are kept very low it is alleged to be driving other newspapers close to insolvency. The bill passed first reading in the Knesset by a clear majority but will hopefully fail in committee. Opposition to the bill came from a wide cross-section of parties including one Arab MK said that closing a newspaper “is disrespectful to Israeli democracy”.