Creating, and discarding, caricatures

[warning:  Those who are bothered, frightened or who become irrational by any mention or discussion of firearms should probably come back another day.  I do not make a habit of talking about guns on this site (less than four treppenwitz posts out of 583 have directly mentioned them... not counting the one regrettable Photo Friday where a tiny bit of my gun was visible in a picture of me making chopped liver), so I sincerely hope that one more post won't give anyone the idea that I have an unhealthy fascination with this topic.  I don't.

One can argue about the role of firearms in personal/home protection... or about the necessary tug-o-war between the right of citizens to bear arms and the government's responsibility to prevent unchecked proliferation of deadly weapons in society.  However, this is neither the place nor the time for that argument.]

When we arrived in Israel I was fortunate (blessed, even) to be hired almost immediately for a job in my field with one of Israel's largest and most prestigious companies.  However, it quickly became apparent that no matter which route I would be driving to work, I would routinely have to travel through potentially problematic areas where stones, Molotov cocktails, bullets and even bombs were sometimes directed at passing cars. 

Add to this the fact that something as simple as a late-evening flat tire on one of the more remote stretches of road could make me an inviting target-of-opportunity for a normally-apolitical Palestinian who, on the spur of the moment, might decide to vent some pent-up frustration against an Israeli.

Not only did I start out wearing a bullet proof vest during my daily commute, but I also made the decision to carry a pistol (a Glock 19C, in case you were curious).   

Within half a year I joined the rotation of residents in my community who stood 4 hours of guard duty a month... and six months later I was asked to join the town's Kitat Konenut (an anti-terrorist emergency response team) which entailed the army issuing me both an M-16 assault rifle and a license to carry it.

In less than a year I went from mild-mannered suburban Connecticut daddy to having more firepower at my disposal than many Montana militias. 

But for all the surreality of this lethal hardware locked up around the house... my basic dislike of guns still kept me from seeing myself the way I would surely be perceived by those who didn't know me; as a typical gun-toting settler.

Rare is the media photograph of any settlers that doesn't include one or more prominently positioned guns. The media has deliberately presented an inaccurate stereotype of settlers who, if not carrying an M-16 slung casually over their shoulder, at least have the ubiquitous pistol poking out from the waistband of their pants. 

Now, I can assure you that while some settlers (including your host) are routinely armed, such armament is far from de rigueur over the green line. 

I'll be the first to admit that, by necessity, guns are a somewhat common sight in many settlements.  But a Haaretz reader in Ramat Gan who has never been to Efrat could be forgiven for mistakenly assuming that every single settler carries a gun... especially if this idea is supported by photographic evidence that regularly appears in his/her paper of choice.

By the same token, a reader of Arutz Sheva could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that the entire Palestinian population of Judea, Samaria and Gaza was split fairly evenly between active membership in Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade (with most Israeli Arabs merely rooting for one or more of these organizations)... especially as almost every Palestinian pictured on Arutz Sheva seems to be masked and/or brandishing a weapon.

The point I'm trying to make is that what we see can't help but influence our (mostly inaccurate)personal opinions and prejudices... and each time we see something that reinforces a stereotype in which we've been encouraged to believe... we smile and congratulate ourselves on being so well informed.

It is for this reason that whenever I travel to Gush Dan (the greater Tel Aviv/central coastal region), I usually make a concerted effort to carry my gun in as unobtrusive a manner as possible.

At first this meant simply draping my shirt-tail over the butt of my pistol, or blousing the back of my shirt in such a way that the gun was mostly obscured from view.  But these half-measures usually failed to completely hide the fact that I was armed... especially when the security guard at the entrance to every store, cafe or office building looks at my kippah, waves a metal detector down my back and asks 'Are you armed?' when the magic wand goes beep.

On more than one occasion I have been lectured loudly by Tel Aviv store owners and shoppers about how I (as a settler) am an obstacle to peace... and how my presence in the territories is both illegal and a direct provocation to Palestinian violence.  One such store matron simply pointed at the door and said, "I don't need your settler money and I don't want a settler in my store".

It was after this experience that I decided, aside from the few people who know me personally, I wasn't going to change people's minds about stereotypical gun-toting settlers... so I would try to avoid a 'look' that would confirm stranger's worldview of 'people like me'.

I often took to wearing a baseball cap instead of a kippah on trips to Tel Aviv.  I even began sometimes wearing my pistol in a Fanny Pack (the kind worn in the front) with a quick-release zipper, or inside the front of my pants in a device alternately called 'Thunderwear' (I know... giggle-worthy) or 'Smart Carry' that I'd originally purchased for jogging and cycling.

The scary part is that with a Red Sox cap and one of these two concealed-carry methods, security guards mostly stopped asking me if I was armed.  The few that waved their electronic wands up and down my back failed to detect the loaded 9mm pistol sitting against the front of my body! 

This has lead me to lecture more than a few security guards about laziness and ineffective work habits. 

Surely if I can walk into a restaurant, office building or bookstore with an undetected handgun, the possibilities are endless for someone bent on carrying out a terrorist attack.  Likewise, several young women I know who carry handguns in their purses or fanny packs are frequently shocked to note that security guards routinely let them pass without so much as a glance.  Certainly there have been a sufficient number of attacks carried out by the fairer sex to warrant a certain level of gender-blindness in our security precautions, right?

All this obviously boils down to various aspects of 'profiling'. 

Some will say profiling is illegal, immoral... or perhaps simply a necessary evil.  I think I've mentioned in the past how I feel on this subject.  But isn't treating all settlers as 'gun-toting lunatics' in any discussion of their rights and/or actions also a form of profiling?  And to my way of thinking, it is surreal to do so while willfully ignoring or discounting the reason someone might feel it prudent to arm themselves. 

I mean really, I have friends who have told me to my face they are too frightened to come visit me in the 'dangerous area' where I live... yet they find it provocative and distasteful that 'most'* settlers carry guns.  These friends see no incongruity or contradiction whatsoever in holding these two fears and prejudices side-by-side amongst their collected personal wisdom and opinions.

There are so many very real social, ethnic, criminal, security and economic problems that exist in Israel and the middle east today that I honestly don't understand our need to categorize, defame and profile one another in order to feel better about ourselves. 

Yes, I am a settler... but not all settlers carry guns. 

Yes, I carry a gun... but my sincerest hope (a hope shared by most gun owners I know) is that I'll never have to fire a shot in anger. 

Yes, I may look like someone you have been raised or indoctrinated to fear and/or hate, but if you set aside those biases you'd see I am as unique an individual as anyone else in the world. 

If as an enlightened Israeli I'm expected to shed my prejudices and look at Arabs as individuals and appreciate their rich cultural tapestry of opinions, customs, aspirations, fears and feelings... certainly I have a right to ask you to accept the possibility that I am also more complex than the two-dimensional settler caricature the media wants you to see when you look at me.

* I have not seen any statistical information to support my opinion, but my personal observations and experiences tell me that a modest minority of settlers are actually armed.