The Road to Becoming a ‘Normal’ Nation Is Riddled With Violence

Israel may be a country that conjures up images of terrorism and bloodshed. But with terrorism at a historical low, it is another kind of violence that is capturing the imagination of Israelis these days.

From road rage to murder over a beach chair, an outburst of petty-disputes-turned-deadly has shocked the public and prompted a rush of angst-ridden hand-wringing.

The apparently random violence drew condemnation from the prime minister and from religious authorities who fretted that Israel was beginning to emulate the worst Western trends. In one hot week in last month, a man allegedly killed his girlfriend’s baby for disturbing him as he watched a soccer game; another man was killed over a beach chair; and still another was beaten to death after he cut off another driver in traffic.

One newspaper quoted the Bible: “Have we become as Sodom? Are we likened unto Gomorrah?”

Yes, the paper answered.

By U.S. or international standards, Israel actually has a very low murder rate. But the figure has been on the rise in recent years, along with domestic abuse and other nonpolitical bloodletting, according to police statistics.

Some Israelis were sickened, but not surprised, by the recent attacks. Criminal hotheadedness is to be expected, they said, in a society that usually sees itself on the defensive, that values macho toughness and that sometimes see courtesies and niceties as weaknesses.

Noah Milgram, professor emeritus of psychology at Tel Aviv University, pointed to an Israeli need to save face, to not be humiliated or to be made a “sucker.”

It is a common driving force not only for many Israelis but also for those in other Mediterranean cultures, he said, and can often push a person to seek revenge if he feels insulted in front of his family or associates. It is not unlike the U.S. gang scene, he said: Dissed in front of your gang, you have to restore honor.

“Israel doesn’t see itself as a violent country. It sees itself as a good place for children to grow up and, with restrictions, a relatively safe place,” Milgram said. “We are shocked by the fact we are becoming a ‘normal’ nation.”

Milgram and other experts pointed to a raft of additional causes. Israeli society is undergoing rapid, fundamental changes. Its economy is being transformed, primarily by high-tech industries, in a way that enriches a small entrepreneurial class but leaves larger segments of the population far behind, wallowing in poverty and unemployment. In addition to tension over the prospects of peace with the Arabs, Israel is fraught with tensions along intra-Jewish ethnic and religious lines.

Still others blamed the influx of immigrants from less developed countries whose educational levels are low and whose inability to adapt to their new homes leads to feelings of inadequacy and frustration. Immigrants from the former Soviet Union have introduced alcoholism at levels not seen before here.

A survey by Jerusalem’s Hebrew University revealed worrisome trends in schools as well. Among elementary school students, 16% said they had stayed home from school at least one day in the previous month out of fear of violence. One in 40 high school students said they had taken a gun to school the previous month; one in five teachers said they felt helpless in the face of school violence.

Ofer Shelah, a columnist writing in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper, echoed another common sentiment: that the spasm of senseless killings fits into the context of a country whose “ethos is defiance” and where political discourse by elected leaders is often a shouting match.

“I am just stating the obvious,” Shelah said. “In a country which, for 30 years, has sanctified its right to do what it wants to the other; . . . in a country which has more generals than women in government and whose leaders are graduates of the [elite commando unit] Sayeret Matkal and the Mossad; in a country which has the largest inequality in the West . . . the only question is how is it that we don’t have a [road-rage slaying] once a day.

“But don’t worry,” Shelah concluded. “Soon, next summer, if not this one, we will.”