The reaction in Israel to the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris was one of amazement and disdain. Israeli security experts wondered why there had not been any advance warnings. How could Islamic terrorists operate so freely on the continent? Why weren’t the naive Frenchmen able to cope with events of this type on their own turf? Subsequently other rhetorical questions were asked: How could Brussels lock its gates for more than a week because of a warning? And how was it possible that a few terrorists were able to throw large European countries into such turmoil, without any proper response?

Israel, with the cumulative experience of more than 70 years of fighting Arab and Islamic terror, views itself as an upgraded, well-oiled machine in everything connected to the war against terror. We, the Israelis boasted, know how to deal with these sorts of situations.

Then, a man named Neshat Melhem arrived on the scene. On Jan. 1, which was a regular workday in Israel, Melhem, a 28-year old Arab Israeli from Arara village, showed up in Tel Aviv. Carrying a small backpack, Melhem ambled along Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv’s equivalent to New York’s Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue. He entered a vegan health food store, walked around and filled a bag with dried fruits; he then changed his mind and emptied the bag. He proceeded to the exit where he stopped and calmly placed his backpack on a shopping cart. He then removed an Italian-made Spectra submachine gun from the bag. Melhem walked out the door, leaving the bag in the store, and in that moment, as if bewitched, he transformed into a killing machine: He began to spray Dizengoff Street with bullets, shooting at the neighboring HaSimta pub, where he killed two youths. He continued his rampage for about 30 seconds, then ran amok and disappeared. He was seen on the security cameras replacing the weapon’s magazine while running. He then disappeared without a trace.

Five full days have now passed since the attack and the perpetrator is still at large. In the past, Israel’s Shin Bet justifiably prided itself on its rapid and efficient solving of far more complicated and deadly terror attacks than the one in Tel Aviv. Israel knows how to extract Palestinian terrorists from the depths of the casbahs in refugee camps located in the very hubs of Palestinian cities, with the help of precise intelligence information. This is true even when the attacks take place in the middle of the night in isolated locations, without eyewitnesses, security cameras or any other leads.