Israeli trooper lies wounded beside Palestinian knifeman who was shot dead

Cars are double- and even triple-parked outside a gun shop in Israel's coastal city of Tel Aviv. Inside, customers jostle each other as they wait to be served.

One man at the store does not even bother to remove his motorbike helmet or interrupt a call on his mobile as he orders and pays for a box of bullets.

"The last time the shop was so busy was probably in the 1970s. I've never before seen such stress or panic," says owner Iftash Ben-Yehuda.

He is now having to ration some of his wares, estimating demand to be about four times higher than normal.

"There's been a shortage of tear gas grenades in the country for a few days, so I limit them to two per customer and give priority to women," the 37-year-old tells AFP.

Smith & Wesson, Glock and Israeli-made Jericho models top the handgun sales league, costing anything between 2,000 and 4,000 shekels ($500-$1,000, 450-900 euros), he says.

He has decided not to charge for weapons training "to participate in the public security effort", Ben-Yehuda says.

One woman whose name often comes up in these stories is Aviva Yisraeli, "Glocker Mom".

�I feel that it�s important for us to do everything in our power to protect ourselves,� said the mother of four, adding that she refuses to be a "sitting duck."

After she posted a Facebook photo showing a BUL Cherokee � an Israeli version of a Glock � in her lap as she drove, Yisraeli, earned the nickname �Glocker mom.� Unlike many of her neighbors, Yisraeli and her husband have not fortified their cars against stones and bullets, preferring to maintain a sense of normalcy. �If we continue to barricade ourselves, you can never take care of the problem,� she said.

Yisraeli and many neighbors said tougher security measures have done little to deter Palestinian assailants. They cite an incident nearby last week, when 20 Palestinian men approached a woman driving in a car, smashed her windows, and attempted to force her out. The army arrived 20 minutes later � after residents had scared the assailants away.

�The Arabs have absolutely no fear from our army .�but when I started carrying our gun, I realized that they do have fear from the civilian response,� she said. �As they say, it�s better to visit you in jail than at the graveyard.�

But the left is, as usual, obsessed with disarming people so they can't defend themselves.

Lawyer Smadar Ben Natan, a leader of a coalition of anti-firearms groups called Gun-free Kitchen Tables, says a series of welcome regulations has halved the number of civilians allowed to bear arms over the past decade.

She believes it would be "very undesirable" if such policies go by the wayside "at the whim of a temporary situation".

I didn't realize Islamic Terrorism in Israel was a "temporary situation".

Smadar Ben Natan is, unsurprisingly, a "human rights attorney" who is big on defending terrorists. So it's not surprising that she wants to prevent Israelis from defending themselves against her clients.

Lord Grade of Yarmouth wrote a letter to the organisation�s Director of News and Current Affairs accusing the BBC of failing to �fulfil its obligation to viewers� by not showing examples of Palestinian authorities praising attacks against Israel and calling for more.