For several years now, the writing has been screaming from the wall. Crime in Arab society has ceased to be a matter for criminal reporters and has become a ticking bomb, challenging and even threatening no less than other ticking bombs in our environment, the ones in which Israel invests endless resources.
The waves of crime in Arab society have many explanations – social, economic, and others. And of course, the Arab leadership, intellectuals, and clerics are also responsible for the inaction, since apart from evasive statements and blaming the government and the police, all these people fill their mouths with water and refrain from leading a frontal and direct struggle against the criminal gangs that currently dominate the Arab street.
But after all this, this is hell with the State of Israel, which purports to be a civilized and progressive state, in which human life has value. And these are the Arab citizens of the state, whose integration into the fabric of life is a national interest of the first order. And of course they are entitled to expect that their state, which seeks their commitment and even loyalty, will lift a finger in the face of the terror that harms them in the streets of Arab communities.
Moreover, Israel is a country with first-rate intelligence and operational capabilities, as evidenced by media reports attributing daring, precise and even surgical operations deep inside the enemy. But eliminating criminal gangs turns out to be a task beyond its power.
The events of Guardian of the Walls also taught the skeptics among us that chaos and violence eventually spill out of the Arab communities. And anyone who takes them lightly or assumes that this is a phenomenon limited to Arab society has long since discovered his mistake.
The Israel Police is full of dedicated and committed people, but it is a medieval police, or more precisely, a police force whose means are at its disposal of the Middle Ages. And perhaps, as the police chief admitted, this is a Stone Age police force dealing with advanced crime with archery.
Not only has crime in Arab society been neglected for years, but so has the Israel Police, and in particular, the development of advanced skills and technological capabilities that will enable it to deal with sophisticated crime as well as organized crime such as that which exists in Arab society. Unfortunately, there are those who advocate leaving the police within its limitations, rather than granting them such advanced capabilities. True, the police may have failed to supervise the use of the means granted to them in the past, but pouring the baby out with the water and leaving it in the Stone Age is the biggest mistake that can be made today.
Perhaps an Israeli FBI should be established in Israel, as opposed to the local police deployed throughout Israel, which will be tasked with dealing with serious crime that crosses borders and against criminal gangs. This is no less important than establishing an unnecessary National Guard, lacking the tools and ability to deal with the challenge.
But all this is in relation to the future. Today, the situation is that in Israel there is one body with operational and intelligence capabilities to deal effectively with serious crime that reaches the brink of terrorism, and that is, of course, the Shin Bet. Some will say that the Shin Bet's mission is to deal with terrorism and save lives, but crime in Arab society is a danger to security and national resilience that is no less serious than the threat of terrorism. In large parts of the country today there is an atmosphere of chaos and anarchy, and those who control them are organized and armed criminal gangs.
The fact is that during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the Shin Bet was tasked with solving some of the incidents of violence in the mixed cities and Arab towns, and yet, oddly enough, it was able to solve these affairs within a few days or weeks. In these cases, too, they were not terrorists or terrorist organizations, but rather serious phenomena of anarchy and chaos, but the immediate and quick response given to them by the Shin Bet helped calm the situation.
The Israeli government does not have the privilege of continuing to treat violence in Arab society as a nuisance. It must entrust its care to those who are capable of accomplishing this task.
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