July 1, 2014, New York, NY

Israel. where I visit often, is a safer, less violent country than the United States. Because this kind of violence doesn't occur regularly in Israel, the kidnappings and then murders of three Jews, and then of an Arab, blew up into a national scandal. And because this is Israel, it blew up into an international scandal, and then a war. But keep in mind, it was shocking because this kind of street violence almost never happens here, so it still has the ability to shock.

Nonetheless, in the US where certain neighborhoods have been long lost to wonton murder, you usually don't get the approval of the mothers... Read what Bret Stephens wrote; the Palestinian mother's comments were widely shown on Hebrew networks.

I am a mother on the other side of the fence, literally. While most high school grads from tony suburbs go off to college depending on their SAT scores, my two kids, yes, both of them, decided college could wait until they'd done a tour in the Israeli Defense Forces. The more I think about the state of the world, the more I think they were right. And the prouder I am of them. May their world become a less violent place, and soon.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/bret-stephens-where-are-the-palestinian-mothers-1404171087