How to stop the crime in the Arab sector and propel Israeli Arab forward - opinion

• Author: GIL TROY
• Published date: 12 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Fortunately, for the first time in years, Israel has a government under Naftali Bennett committed to tackling these challenges empathetically, creatively, effectively. And for the first time ever, Israel has a pragmatic Arab party in the governing coalition ready to lead.

We must reverse the gravitational forces and generate a civility spiral to propel this community forward: fighting crime, which hurts us all; building infrastructure, which affects individual Arabs' quality of life; and creating an Israeli-Arab civics that leans into the advantages Israeli-Arabs can enjoy as emissaries to our neighbors.

It's triage – first, stop the bleeding. Finally, people are noticing the crime scourge in all its dimensions, from the murder and mayhem on the streets to the fear in people's hearts, generated by brazen thugs, protection racketeers and violent relatives resorting to fists and guns, not words and reason.

Recent American history has shown: we can fight crime effectively. Mafias can be broken (in the Jewish and Bedouin sectors, too). Murder rates can be lowered. Cities can be made safe. While tapping our own considerable expertise in security matters, Israel should consult with the legendary "broken windows" policer William Bratton. You battle crime top-down and bottom-up.

Top-down – you target the murderers and other monsters who commit the most heinous crimes, as well as the gangsters and other full-timers who commit most of the crimes.

Bottom-up, you show zero tolerance for the little offenses. Petty crimes are gateway crimes, empowering little criminals to become big criminals, transforming part-timers into lifers. Petty crimes are also lifestyle violations, assaults against public decency, civic order, every citizen walking outside or sitting at home. We must empower – and educate – our police to calmly, diplomatically but sternly fight juvenile crime and seemingly minor offenses, ranging from littering to vandalism, to restore faith in the system and safety on the streets.

Massive infrastructure improvements must reinforce this domestic war. Beyond improving the permit process so Arabs can build, beautify and expand homes, their cities must be cleaned, upgraded, modernized, extended. Consult Moti Sasson, the magical mayor of Holon, and other municipal turnaround artists, in Israel and abroad, who saved their cities.

Added bonus, this could be a wonderful Israel-Diaspora initiative, perhaps headed by Michael Bloomberg, who revived a brutalized...