I do, because it’s my home town and it came just after London’s own terrorist experience. Yet the world doesn’t remember this and doesn’t realise what we lived through for so many years before the fence went up. London was one event, for Israel, and for Netanya, there have been many attacks. I don’t live in Israel at the moment, but I can tell you this: Going back there now as I do once a year, life there today is completely incomparable to just 5 years ago. 5 years ago we lived in constant paranoia, every time you sat in public in a cafe, or got on a bus, or walked through a crowded street, fear and terror was on your mind. I camn recall all the attacks on my city, and there have been many. Getting on a bus, I was never calm, I would always stay alert, and there have been times of fear while sitting on bus when I debated with myself whether to get off or not because I feared for my safety. Walking down the street was a constant state of cautiousness and calculation, what to look out for, where to look and what to do if anything does happen. It was constant unease.

Today, it is a different story. I still strikes me every time, I am sure most people including Israelis now take this for granted, but I know that it often springs to mind, since the fence went up, the fear is gone, I can catch the bus and rest my eyes, listen to music, instead of being alert and nervous, I can walk through places that I often tried to avoid back then because of the crowds and the history of bombings in those places. Now things are normal….it is extremely frustrating when it is so hard to get that message across, how we lived then and how people live now, the freedom from fear that most take for granted and was given to us by that fence.

I was always, and still consider myself to be on the peace camp of Israelis. I hope it comes soon and I don’t want the Palestinians to suffer. But while peace hasn’t come yet, Israelis also deserve internal peace and at least in my part of the country we have that now……