watto
06.01.04, 20:33
www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/27_12_03_e1.asp
Another kind of terror: Israel grapples with murderous gang wars and corruption
BEIRUT: Three Israelis were killed and more than 30 wounded on Dec. 11 by a lunchtime bomb explosion at a moneychanger?s office in a seedy district of south Tel Aviv notorious for its prostitutes and illegal gambling dens. But it wasn?t an attack by Palestinian militants. For ordinary Israelis, this was another kind of terror a war in the streets of unprecedented ferocity between the country?s organized crime families who commentators say now control much of the political system.
With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his two sons currently under suspicion of involvement in illegal financial transactions, including under-the-table funding for political purposes, the degree to which criminal organizations have penetrated Israel?s body politic amid what many see as a worrying deterioration in public morality is becoming a national scandal.
High-profile corruption cases involving political figures such as Sharon who could conceivably be pushed out of office by the graft charges and the broad daylight mayhem on the streets of Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Haifa, Eilat, Hadera and other cities is drawing demands for greater scrutiny and more effective police action.
The underworld?s gang wars, with Israeli killing Israeli, has jolted a nation already traumatized by suicide bombings, forcing Ariel Sharon?s Cabinet to address the problem. But the gangland mayhem appears to be endemic of a deepening malaise in Israeli society on various levels. After monitoring the Israeli press, and the barrage of reports about official corruption and intifada-induced road rage among citizens of all classes and background in recent weeks, one could be forgiven for thinking that Israel was on the verge of social disintegration.