June 19, 2012 | 10:27 am

Thoughts about security

Posted by Noga Gur-Arieh

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Yesterday was scary. I was just getting out of class when a friend of mine called. She is working as a security guard at an elementary school, and she was stressed out. She told me that militants crossed into Israel from Egypt, and that there was an exchange of fire and that there has been an alert that they might have entered Israel. She was standing alone, expected to keep hundreds of young kids safe, but incapable of actually protecting them. “If they will come, there will be nothing I can do,” she said. I live at the center of Israel, which means the last time I felt that kind of danger was during the second Intifada. I was a kid, barely a teenager, and didn’t quite realize the fear that took over my parents. I was forbidden to ride buses, so I walked. Simple as that. Now, 10 years later, I am a person of my own, capable of realizing a danger. My friend was guarding a school, filled with kids as young as we were, unaware of the danger, not feeling the impotence, the incapability to be truly protected. “If they will come, there will be nothing I can do”…
The militants were caught. The IDF proved itself once again and peace was redeemed. Nonetheless, I couldn’t stop thinking about what my friend said. We can never be truly protected, even while having the best army in the world. In case someone will succeed at entering Israel, he/she can do anything he/she wishes. They can stand near an elementary school and blow up. That’s that. “If they will come, there will be nothing I can do”…