Anonymity was his weapon as much as the big tractor.

Israeli police knew the name of Hassam Taiseer Dwyatt only because of his criminal past.  He lived in East Jerusalem, came and went as he pleased, crossed no checkpoints and carried an Israeli ID.  No one had any reason to stop him and there is no point where he would have been stopped.  Since he worked at the construction site adjacent to my office, I may very well have passed him on the street and paid him no mind.

That’s why no one had their guard up when he climbed behind the controls of the massive caterpillar front-end loader, started crushing cars and ending lives. We still don’t know what set him off. He may have just been a disgruntled employee.  He may have been dispatched by one of the deadly Palestinian organizations.  He may have acted purely on his own personal hatred. It may be a combination. But because no one was prepared to defend against rampaging heavy equipment, he was able to cut a path of destruction about a quarter mile long before Israeli police officers climbed up to the cockpit of the big rig and wrestled him to a temporary stop.

Moshe Plesser, an 18 year old, off duty soldier hung on the side of the cockpit behind the police officers.  Again unexpectedly, Dwyatt hit the gas.  As the bloodshed and destruction started again, Plesser, with the calm and professionalism of a seasoned combat veteran, took a gun from one of the police officers, reached over their heads and fired the fatal shots that ended the rampage.

There hasn’t been an attack in Jerusalem since March.  The combination of advanced intelligence work and the wall/fence surrounding the West Bank have stopped all but one bomber, who attacked last February in the town of Dimona. It is not for a lack of effort. Israeli security forces intercept bombs and bomb plots on a near daily basis.  They have the Palestinian groups and the general population infiltrated with collaborators. When the plots hatch, they stop them, either in the headquarters, or attempting to cross out of the West Bank.  Dwiyat was able to kill and injure so many, simply because no one would have paid any attention to him. No one saw an attack like this coming.