People often ask which settlement, city, or part of a city is "safe."
The answer to this question is more difficult than you may think.
The fact that an incident took place in a particular location does not mean that it is more dangerous than any other location. The attack already took place there. In all likelihood, any subsequent attack will take place in a different location.
It would also be wrong to imply that a certain area is bad because certain areas, neighborhoods or settlements harbor terrorists. My daughter, Tehilla, likes to say that terrorists have legs, just like ours. They don't stay in one place - they move around. Thus, one location is not necessarily safer than another.
Yes, some locations have statistically fewer incidents than others. However, no no place offers a guarantee of security. Incidents can and do occur just about all over Israel, and on either side of the Green Line.
Yes, you can certainly develop statistics about any particular location. Perhaps you or somebody else has already done so. You can show that some areas have been attacked more frequently than others. I'm sure you can plot a nice scatter chart. Don't forget your chi square.
However, your lovely statistics omit just one issue. If, chas veshalom, your loved one is attacked, then your statistics are meaningless. He or she may be in an area which has never been an attack before - and which may never have a subsequent attack. The attack was in a "safe" location which suffered "only" that attack.
Does that turn it into a statistically problematic neighborhood? What value are statistics when terrorists do indeed have legs?
You must make a careful decision about whether to send somebody to a particular location. However, a decision based on statistics does not reflect reality.
Other locations around the world are also dangerous. Your own neighborhood in the Diaspora has also suffered from attacks. For some reason, the importance of dangers in your own back yard is minimized, whereas the dangers in Israel are maximized. We are living in dangerous times - all around the world. Statistically, Israel is more dangerous than some other places. However, if the finger will be pointed at your loved one, then it can be pointed at any place or time.
The subsequent intifada turned the entire country into the war front. Jews could be killed in any location by Arab suicide bombers. Some people were afraid to go to locations in which bombers had already killed others � especially if there were multiple attacks at the same location. There were cases in which people received offers to stay with relatives and friends in distant locations for the duration of the war, but Israelis stayed home nonetheless.
Some Yeshiva boys left Israel before the first Gulf war in 1991. They were afraid of the Scuds, and they wanted to avoid them.
On the way home from New York's JFK airport their car was involved in a fatal crash on the Interboro Parkway.
The boys could have been quite safe if they had stayed in Israel. Only one person died from the scuds - in a very indirect way. Their Gulf war deaths did not take place in Israel. They took place in the United States.
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