After the festive meal to celebrate the Jewish New Year, Alexander Levlovitch gave a lift to his daughters and was driving back home through the dark south-easterly streets of Jerusalem. His car was deliberately attacked. He lost control, but still had enough sense to veer away from others in order to minimize the loss of limbs.

He died clutching the steering wheel. Lawyers can argue whether it was the one kilo rock that struck his car or the incitement that the killers had endured which are responsible for the death of Levlovitch. The eulogies and articles merely describe a person, who sought peace between his fellow human beings.

Jerusalem and the region have been burning ever since. For example, thirty days later – and 30 days is significant because this is when mourners in Judaism remember the deceased –  “a Palestinian woman was shot after stabbing a Border Police officer near the capital’s police headquarters”. This was October 12th, a day of multiple acts of terror.

What was so special about this one specific stabbing? It is not that the terrorist was treated on the spot by an Israeli police woman. It is not that the terrorist was then taken to a hospital in Jerusalem, where care was delivered on the same basis as to everyone else.

What sets this story apart is that the police woman is Captain Maya Stolero, who’s late father was…….dear Alexander Levlovitch. She did her job. She is trained to help civilians. And that is what she did, regardless of race and religion.

It would be convenient to let the story end there. However, the incident raises a very troubling question. Agreed, not everything is ‘rosy’ in Israeli society. Yet, if this is how the Israeli police and local hospitals behave towards those who hate them, what are the Palestinians actually complaining about?

There are those who advocate on behalf of the Palestinians by claiming that they are poor, carved aside from regular society. They have no hope. And I bet there are stats to show that the Arab sector in Israel deserves a larger share of the national pie.

But to say ‘no hope’? I have just shown two simple examples of where such hope lies, daily. And what about the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s. As my wife reminded me, that framework was installed precisely to offer the kind of hope that the Palestinians are looking for today. Unfortunately, the violence of Arafat’s Intifada destroyed such dreams for many, of all persuasions.

And the rock that was hurled at Alexander Levlovitch’s car? It was as much about the desire for peace and mutual recognition and was that same Intifada. In other words, the terrorists are burying the very “hope” they aspire to, and you have to ask why?