Since the lone-wolf intifada hit Israel last year, security forces all over the country are on high alert, yet the Border Police fighters are the first line of defense
HIGH ALERT Magavnikim can’t not be alert. “Sometimes you make a mistake and the inspection proves everything is fine. And sometimes your instinct is right and you prevent an attack” (Photos: Yoav Davidkowitz Flash 90)
It’s late afternoon and the Judean sun casts its trademark glow over the cement slabs that loom before us on the main street not far from Mearas Hamachpeilah in Chevron. Deputy Commander Avida Katfi of the Border Police is showing me one of the checkpoints the officers under his command have erected. As we get closer I suddenly notice two local Arab teens standing near a low iron fence verbally facing off with two border policemen. Much to my surprise Deputy Commander Katfi’s hand does not tighten around his M-16 and the four other border patrol officers walking with us continue on as well. The officer next to me continues with his security explanations but my nerves aren’t letting me concentrate.
“What’s happening here?” I try to glean some real information.
“An inspection” he replies laconically.
“And if one of them has a knife and he—”
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