Crime up

Today we visited the new Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem with our
B'nai Brith group. Of course, it is a major improvement over the original
one, with a much larger space and much more modern presentation. The degree
of documentation is incredible, with eyewitness accounts at every stage.
But, what is one to say when one sees a jeering, cheering crowd of hundreds
of Latvians watching a group of terrified Jewish girls and women being raped
in public and then beaten to death. The Europeans have not come anywhere
near showing remorse or asking our pardon for what they perpetrated. And it
was not an isolated phenomenon, but occurred all over Europe, something on
which the Europeans were unified. I cannot write any more about this, but
everyone should visit it.
Meanwhile, as we prepare to leave Israel, things are both good and bad.
In the good column, the French are on the defensive and M. Chirac is
definitely on the skids as a result of the rejection of the European
constitution. Commentators think this may result in a turn around in
France, Germany and Italy to a more pro-American and pro-Israel attitude.
Part of the reason is a fear of allowing Turkey into the EU, that would
radically alter the balance of Muslims within the EU and result in a
possible wave of easy immigration into western Europe.
There is an election going on in Lebanon, and although the Shi'ite south
voted for Hizbollah, that was to be expected. At the same time there are
rumors of potential changes in Syria, while in Iraq the insurgency
continues, but so does the Iraqi Government-American reaction to it. The
calm in Israel with reduced terrorism continues to hold, although today two
Islamic Jihad terrorists were arrested in Beit Hanina with explosives and a
plan to blow up a synagogue in Ramot when it was full of worshippers.
On the negative side, there was a 30% increase in murders in Israel this
year over last year, with many cases of violence being reported. A few days
ago a young woman of 20 was murdered in Ashdod, and today a 13 year old boy
was attacked by a group of kids at a bar mitzvah in Rehovot and badly
beaten, the kids were high on alcohol. This type of thing is becoming more
common in Israel, last week a soldier died after a party and his officer has
been arrested, alcohol and drugs are suspected.
The major current police case is the so-called "Trojan horse" computer
program that was used to obtain information about the activities of their
competitors by several major Israeli companies. Apparently a programmer
named Elphrati, who currently lives in London, developed the program and put
a copy in his former father-in-law's computer. His father-in-law was very
surprised to see excerpts from the book he is currently writing in the
press. He complained to the police, they found the spy-ware in his
computer, and had Elphrati arrested in London, where is awaiting extradition
to Israel. Meanwhile they also discovered that he had sold copies to
several detective agencies who had sold them in turn to some of their
clients and had put them in the competitors' computers. Now three
detectives and several high ranking company executives have been questioned
and detained. Today the cabinet considered a proposal to drastically
increase the police budget and expand its capabilities.
A few months ago a Member of the Knesset voted electronically and then voted
again in place of an adjacent absent member. This is of course illegal. He
admitted the action, and so was charged by the police, but a Knesset
committee voted to give him immunity from prosecution. The case was taken
to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Committee must reverse itself.
But, today the Committee voted again to protect the MK from prosecution.
This shows how far from legality and decent behavior our elected officials
are prepared to go. Unfortunately, there is little or no redress, since
there is no direct election of representatives they answer more to their
party than to the electorate, and all the parties are corrupt. What a
fiasco. I need a break!