A Pathology of Murderous Psychopathic Disorder

"The young woman was stabbed numerous times in the head, chest and the area of the heart."
Dr. Ofer Merin, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem

"I must say that we are showing such awareness [Israeli citizens on 'maximum alert'], with considerable resourcefulness and courage, and this is deserving of all praise."
"We are still fighting and will continue to do so."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

How does a population prepare for attacks coming out of everywhere, with no sign of anything impending, people just walking along a street, going about their business, never suspecting that death stalks them, until suddenly being confronted by another person with intentions to murder. A knife will do, and its symbolism has exerted a powerful draw on those nursing hatred and a wish for vengeance against those they have been convinced want to destroy them, but have not and do not and will not.

She was 21, and fully alive. After being attacked by a Palestinian with a knife on Sunday in the West Bank she is no longer alive. And nor is her attacker who was shot and killed by soldiers who had been nearby when the man sought and succeeded in killing an innocent young woman, unprepared for the morbid catastrophe that would overtake her life. She was studying at a seminary in the Bat Ayin settlement near Gush Etzion. She had recently returned to Israel from six months in India.


Her name was Hadar Buchris, from Safed in the north of Israel, killed yesterday while awaiting the arrival of a bus, in Gush Etzion, West Bank. Her assailant was a 34-year-old man from nearby Beit Fajar, Atzam Tuabata. He is said to have been a father of three children. What a viral disease, that level of hatred, that he would take the life of someone he didn't know, and leave his children fatherless.

Ah, presumably he achieved martyrdom. And the celebration of that martyrdom would be a point of pride for his children when they grow up. To repeat the cycle.


The day before, a thirteen-year-old girl was among four Israelis who were stabbed and wounded in the southern city of Kiryat Gat. Israel, it should be recalled, had a purpose in its establishment as a nation, to become a place of universal refuge for Jews who would find solace and haven there should they care to become one with the nation. Of course, becoming an Israeli would also mean acceptance of the fact that those who live there know they have chosen to live in a very rough neighbourhood.

Also on Sunday a woman stopped at the entrance of a military base and approached civilians there, pulling out a knife in her possession. As that was occurring, a man from a West Bank settlement veered off the road to strike the woman who was then fired at by a soldier, and died for her troubles. Tragedy strikes and like a pebble thrown into a lake, the ripples fan out and in this instance, left the parents of this woman grieving her choice and her loss.

She was sixteen. Taha Qatanani explained that his daughter had left for school as  usual. Two hours later he heard that she was dead. "She talked about stabbing to her brother the day before but no one took her seriously", he said. What parent would? It is incomprehensible. It is a virus of dementia of psychopathic dimensions whose purpose eludes rationality.

Also in the West Bank on Sunday, a Palestinian behind the wheel of a taxi attempted to ram into Israelis, east of Jerusalem. After his car crashed he emerged holding a knife, and attempted to stab people. He too was shot dead, but by a bystander, and before anyone else was harmed. Israelis with licenses to own and carry guns have been encouraged to take them with them in response to this situation of mass madness.

Back again to Saturday; that night a Palestinian stabbed four people in the town of Kiryat Gat. A manhunt followed, with police finding the man, an 18-year-old, hiding in the yard of a home nearby where the attack took place.