Muggings

There have been a spate of terrible muggings in Netanya. One of our friends was walking to shool at 7.40 am on a weekday and was attacked by a man on a motorcycle. The man drove up onto the pavement and tried to take his satchel from him carrying his religious items (prayer book, tallit, tefillin). When he resisted, the attacker cut the strap of the satchel and used the bike to push him down and then slashed his leg and drove off. It appears that there were seven such attacks that morning on lone older people, and one of them is near death. The latest we heard is that the police have traced and arrested the man, who is a drug addict.
In a competely different incident, an older couple were walking along near the city center around 7 pm at night when a car mounted the pavement/sidewalk in front of them. They were surprised by this and thought that it was someone who was drunk, but then a hand reached out from the back window and tried to grab the woman's handbag. She resisted and they tried to cut the handle, but it was too thick, so they pushed the couple down and drove away. Luckily nothing was stolen in this case.
This is not the extent of violence that has happened in Netanya. Last week a man was found shot dead sitting in a car in front of the supermarket on Rav Kook Street. Police believe this was a gang-related crime and are asking for anyone who saw anything to come forward.
In addition to the above, several people over the past few years have been the victims of breakins. Usually it is because the front door was not locked. In one case the husband went out in the early morning and forgot to lock the door while the rest of the family was sleeping. In another case the door was not locked after a cleaning woman entered. Someone walked in, either during the day or night, and walked around and stole some things, even entering the bedroom where people were sleeping. In one case the woman screamed and chased the man and he threw the handbag he had stolen at her. But, this is not recommended, since he might have had a weapon and could have attacked her. In another case, thieves broke in at night and chloroformed the couple sleeping in their bed and then ransacked their apartment. This was so traumatic that the couple moved to another location.
So living in Israel has become increasingly dangerous. Well, we Zionists wanted a "normal" state. This is a process of what Israelis call the "Americanization of Israel."