As an Israeli Hero Dies Saving a Stranger’s Life, Five Questions on Moral Clarity
Last week, Ari Fuld was running some errands in the shops at the Gush Etzion Junction when a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist named Khalil Jabarin approached him calmly and stabbed him in the back. Bleeding profusely, Fuld lost neither his cool nor his spirit: He got up, ignored his pain, and gave chase. Moments before Jabarin could stab another woman, a falafel shop owner named Hila Peretz, Fuld drew his personal firearm, took aim, and neutralized the terrorist. He collapsed a short while later, and was pronounced dead that afternoon in a Jerusalem hospital, leaving behind a wife and four children.
It is tempting, as it always is in the aftermath of a heartbreak, to resort to thunderous statements about the need for reconciliation or revenge or any other sentiment too ephemeral to do us any real good. Instead, having spent much of Yom Kippur thinking about Ari Fuld and his sacrifice, I offer five observations in an attempt to find larger meaning in this tragedy. Think of them as five tests to help deliver moral clarity where too little is to be found.