knife Attacks, terrorism
fight or write?
BY MOSHE KATZ 
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL

May 5, 2022, Israel

Today was Israel Independence Day. Very nice. Towards the end of the day of celebration, some Arabs celebrated in their own way. The details are not clear yet, and we, the public, may never fully know them, but some Arabs attacked/stabbed Jews who were lingering in a park after celebrations, killed at least 3 and left at least 4 more in critical conditions. Of course the newspapers are interested in the "story" but not actually in helping us. As such nothing was reported about the nature of the attack, nothing was reported about how the attacks took place, nothing was reported about the one man who fought back and survived. Lots of trauma, but no lessons.

Tragic. 

And so, someone on Facebook goes on a rant. I understand, this makes people feel better, they might actually believe they are doing some good. But they are not. 

This woman goes on a rant; the government is no good, the police are not handling the situation correctly, the military should take a sweeping action etc etc etc. Yes, we have heard all before. 

I commented, fully knowing the inevitable knee-jerk response, that what we can do is help ourselves a little by actually training in Krav Maga. The attack was not long in coming...How dare you! You are blaming the victims etc. etc.

Right, that is correct, the Krav Maga instructor is now the target of the anger and abuse. So I join the government, the president, the police and the military, we are the problem. i.e. those who are trying to do something are the problem. 

I am not sure what such people think; do you they believe that the government is one of their Facebook followers? That the government will read their post, take it to heart and NOW will finally address the issue of terrorism, or in other cases, violence against women? Is this the thought process?

In other words, the government, police, military, special forces etc. are all either unaware of the problem, don't really care, or don't know how to handle it, but once they read this woman's Facebook post they will take the appropriate actions?  Or is this just a way to let off some steam?

Certainly there is nothing constructive or logical in this approach. The way I see it is - there is always someone to blame, and the individual is never part of the solution, he is waiting to be saved.

For many centuries Jews were waiting for the Messiah to come and save them, redeem the land of Israel, rebuild Jerusalem, restore the Kingdom of David. But then a generation arose that decided to take action on their own. Today we see the results; an independent strong State of Israel.

What part do you plan to take in your own self defense? just write about it and complain, or take some personal action? Well, clearly it is much easier to just blame others and wait for the Messiah to save you.

I am not the biggest fan of the current Israeli administration, but I do believe that all our leaders care about the people and make every effort to stop terrorism and crime. I personally know many police operatives, soldiers and counter-terror experts and I know that they spend many sleepless nights, many holidays and weekends searching for terrorists in the most dangerous areas. They are doing something. However, they cannot be everywhere all the time, they cannot be your personal body guard. You, the individual, must play a role in your self-defense. 

Now here is another point from Counter-Terrorism. Individual knife attacks cannot be fully anticipated or pre-empted. What do I mean?

A suicide bombing, for example, involves several people. Someone must sell the materials necessary to make a bomb, someone must give the order to purchase these materials, someone else must do the purchasing. Someone must recruit the new suicide bombers (each one can only be used once), someone must train the suicide bomber. Someone must plan the attack, someone must drive the suicide bomber, etc. In other words, there are many stages in this process and many people involved. Any one of these can be discovered by the undercover agents. However, a knife attack is not this way. A man can wake up in the morning, decide this is it, today I am going to kill someone, he grabs a knife from his kitchen, goes outside and looks for the first vulnerable distracted person he can find. How can anyone know this in advance? There is only one person involved. He is not a member of a terrorist organization. He is operating alone, the government, the police, the military, the counter-terrorists, none of them can anticipate such an attack and none can prevent it. So who can?

We must be trained to be alert, we must be trained in how to spot a potential attacker, we must be trained to act in a way that does not invite a terrorist, there is a great day we can do that is not even physical, and of course we can learn some good self defense techniques. There is a great deal that can be done.

Back to this woman's' attack against me, she writes...no amount of Krav Maga training will work against a violent attacker with a knife or axe. 

Wow. Really? She just negated my entire career. I wrote to her, Yes, you got us, we just teach for fun, none of us actually believes this works against a determined attacker, of course not. Best to complain on Facebook. Wow. 

So we have the choice, learn to Fight, or just Write. Which one is easier? Just write on social media. Which one actually will improve your chances for survival? 

Ironic how someone who devotes their life to training others to defend themselves, someone who has received hundreds of letters from grateful students who used these techniques to fight off violent armed aggressors, this instructor becomes the target of attacks on social media by frustrated people. 

Again the choice is ours, Write or Fight?

What is your life worth to you?

Start Your REAL Training TODAY

Or is someone coming to save you?

IKI Krav Maga on line distance training - Leading to ranks and certification 

DVDs from Israel

Tour and Train Israel Experience

IKI Membership Options.

Krav Maga Certification

Krav Maga Instructors

Krav Maga Seminars

Personal Training - If you are interested in personal Krav Maga training please contact us on the form below. 

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.