Are We Willing to Pay the Price?

By Moshe Feiglin
28 Menachem Av, 5770
08 August '10

Translated from the article on the NRG website

The family from Beitar Ilit that was crushed by a train last week and my son who is still unconscious in the rehabilitation ward after an MVA are just two tragic examples of a national blight that robs us of our lives and health.

We tend to relate to traffic accidents on an emotional level and to say that we have done all we can. Just like with Gilad Shalit or Jonathan Pollard. We assume that the powers that be are doing everything possible. But the truth is that they are doing everything possible within the framework of what we are willing to pay. Pollard and Shalit are not home because we, as a society, are not willing to pay the real price that must be paid for their release. Instead, we pay lip service – and our captives remain in captivity.

If thousands of jailed Hamas terrorists are still receiving visits and luxury conditions, that means that we really want Gilad home, but that we are not willing to pay the price. And if in the past twenty five years not one official Israeli request for the release of Jonathan Pollard has been served, that means that we don't really want him and that we are certainly not willing to pay the price.

The same is true for MVAs. Everyone knows what the solution is, but nobody is willing to pay the price. I have been driving for 30 years. I think that I am a very careful and courteous driver. My children always joke that on the day that I will honk the horn, a plume of dust will rise over the hood of the car. Nevertheless, I sometimes find myself speeding. Not seriously, but going over the speed limit. It is an expression of the gap between reality, in which traffic is flowing at a certain speed -and what the signs say.

Are we willing to pay the price to close the gap between the law and reality? That entails two things: One, to adjust the law to modern highways and automobiles and two, to make the drivers responsible for their driving.

(Read full article)

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