A few days after the ceasefire was declared, I starting sending the paper feature articles about the feelings among the reservists on the front line in Sinai. I had been called up for six months straight, and through the articles I tried to let the civilians on the homefront know how the reservists were feeling and discuss what was bothering them.

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We were a platoon of reservists there on the dunes, near Tassa, not far from the town of Ismail, 8 km (5 miles) from the Suez Canal. We slept in foxholes that we dug in the sand and covered with slabs of corrugated tin. We had no lights, and when it got dark we read by candlelight. During the day, we watched Egyptian soldiers' movements, but mostly we were busy preparing meals from the daily rations we received.

In the first article, I told readers about the difficulties of phoning home. In an age of smartphones equipped with Whatsapp and Twitter, it's inconceivable that for weeks we couldn't talk with our wives or children. I wrote, "Ever since the war, we haven't been able to call home. Newspapers published pictures of portable telephones on the western side of the canal, but our unit never got any, for some reason, not even once."

In another article I told them about one of my comrades who, when he left for furlough, took not only his dirty laundry and his gun, but also a carton of eggs: "When we saw Tal wrapping up a flat of 30 eggs, we thought it was a joke but he answered, 'It's serious. I'm taking eggs home. You don't know that there's a serious egg shortage in the city?'"

At the end of December 1973, an entertainment troupe visited us for the first time. I wrote, "In the afternoon, a military vehicle stopped at the entrance to the outpost. Out came a red-haired, bearded guy who played the accordion, a pretty girl who had brought a xylophone from her home in Givatayim, two siblings from Argentina – Glorida and Fredo – who sang songs accompanied by a guitar, and a fat reservist who served as the emcee and told jokes."

We near the canal got to see our first movie in February 1974. It was fun, in the heart of the desert, to see naked young Swedish girls. I described it as follows: "Last week, we had a refreshing experience and watched a movie. The movie was screened from a truck hooked up to a generator. They hung up a white cloth, and to the side sat a technician and a film projector. The technician said that it was a Swedish film called '17,' which had been produced in Sweden a few years ago. It was a little strange to get used to the idea that we were sitting on the IDF's front line, a few hundred meters from the Egyptian Second Army, watching a Swedish erotic film."

In a different article, I wrote about a brief, moving encounter we had with Egyptian soldiers.

"For four months, we saw them digging down in the sand a few hundred meters away. Suddenly, in the middle of the day, three soldiers from the Second Army in their light uniforms approached the barbed wire fence and waved. For a moment it seemed as if they wanted to surrender because they had come without weapons. But when we got to the fence, it turned out that they wanted to talk to us and take pictures, and trade Egyptian coins and banknotes for our [Israeli] lira – and shake hands. All of a sudden, the barriers were down and we saw that, like us, they wanted to go home and leave the tanks and the sand dunes. Later, we took a picture together. They gave us their home addresses and asked that we send them the historic photo."

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Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, faces eight counts of attempted murder for injuring eight people, including four who remain hospitalized. He is being held without bail.

The most seriously injured is a 13-year-old Sunnyvale girl of South Asian descent who is in a coma with severe brain trauma.

His family says Peoples, a former U.S. Army sharpshooter, experienced post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq. Peoples' attorney, Chuck Smith, says the crash was in no way deliberate.

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The measure, known as the Taylor Force Act, was named after a 29-year-old U.S. military veteran, who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist while visiting Israel in 2016.

The act is intended to stop the Palestinians from paying stipends, referred to as "martyr payments," to the families of terrorists killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities. The payments can reach up to $3,500 a month.

Force's attacker was killed by Israeli police, and the terrorist's family receives such a monthly payment.

Over the weekend, the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC) and the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus (CIVC) hailed the passing into law of the Taylor Force Act, which was written and introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado), a member of the CIVC.

"Passing this crucial bill sends a clear message to the Palestinian Authority that they must accept the Jewish state," said Lamborn. "The United States will not support measures that seek to harm our ally, Israel. I am pleased to work with the Israel Victory Caucus and our counterparts in the Knesset toward our common goals."

CIVC co-chair Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) was an original co-sponsor when the Taylor Force Act was first introduced in the House of Representatives. "As the Palestinians continue to undermine the Jewish state, we must now, more than ever, reaffirm our support for Israel," he said.

"This is a step in the right direction to end the conflict, and send a strong message that the United States will not provide aid to those who fund terrorists," he added. "I am pleased that this important policy was included in the omnibus signed by the president."

Similar legislation is currently moving forward in Israel, with a law drafted by Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, a KIVC co-chair. The legislation has passed its first reading and is still pending approval in second and third readings.

"We congratulate Rep. Doug Lamborn and our colleagues in the U.S. on this important first step," MK Stern said. "We hope it will put an end to Palestinian incitement, violence and payments to terrorists. We have a similar law that passed its first reading in the Knesset and we are delighted to be working in parallel on such an important security issue that will save lives and contribute towards peace."

Another KIVC co-chair, Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, also talked about how the Israeli government was exploring ways of ending Palestinian payments to terrorists and their families, hailing party leader Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman as a driving force in these efforts.

"It is extremely important that after decades of being rewarded and incentivized for its murderous and rejectionist activity, the Palestinian Authority is finally being told enough is enough," Forer said. "We are working with our colleagues in the U.S. to ensure that Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism will be roundly defeated, and the will of those who seek to perpetuate the conflict and continue the bloodshed is broken."

The Israel Victory Project, an initiative of the Middle East Forum (MEF), has helped in the creation of the two caucuses, which work closely together with the public and political spheres to raise awareness on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under a new paradigm. The initiative operates under the belief that a political settlement can be reached only once the Palestinian leadership ends its war of rejectionism to the very existence of Jewish sovereignty.

MEF Director Gregg Roman noted that "this bipartisan action is a step in the right direction to end the conflict by cutting off support to an entity that refuses to accept that Israel has won its war for independence."

"We will continue to work with our partners in Congress and Knesset to strengthen efforts to punish Palestinian rejectionism so that the conflict can end, and rejectionism becomes recognition."

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