Since the onset of the terror wave, a substantive debate has raged in Israel between the military and diplomatic echelons. It concerns not only the way the Israel Defense Forces ought to fight terror, but also the essence of and reasons for the violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government links the Palestinian attacks to the jihadi terror wave afflicting the free world.

According to Netanyahu, the Israelis live in a jungle of predatory animals and are condemned to live by the sword. When Culture Minister Miri Regev spoke July 7 at the opening ceremony of the Jerusalem Film Festival, she, too, strengthened the “This is our fate” approach. According to Regev, the murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel is part of the global terrorism problem, just like the June 12 Florida nightclub massacre and the July 5 attack against Turkey's Ataturk Airport. She was answered with boos by the audience.

By contrast, former Mossad Deputy Chief Ram Ben Barak presented a different equation to the Israelis. In a July 1 interview with Channel 10, Ben Barak said, “We have to honestly say that that is the price we are paying for sitting within a hostile Arab population. We can decide that this is a price we are willing to pay, or we can decide that we don’t want to pay it.” In other words, living with terror is not a decree from heaven.