No upside to violence

“Enough with the murder on Arab streets” (October 4) quotes Jafar Farah, director of the Haifa-based Mossawa Advocacy Center, as saying “Ultimately the state (of Israel) wants Arab violence. That way, Israeli-Arabs will not have the appetite to voice nationalistic aspirations.”

Never was there a sentence that more eloquently summarizes the distorted mentality and emotions of many of the Arabs living in Israel.

I see no way to deal with paranoid delusions of this nature – one can only cry out in despair. Perhaps Gershon Baskin, the JPost’s unofficial resident Arabist, can suggest a solution.

YIGAL HOROWITZ Beersheba

The tidal wave of violence in the Arab community in Israel is certainly not new, although it is increasing rapidly. Your editorial today calls for a stop, and places the burden of the responsibility on the police.

I believe many readers would agree that the Police force has a heavy task and it has had many successes despite poor pay and conditions, it has also been characterized over many years in too many cases by poor standards, rudeness, ineptitude, gratuitous violence against some sectors, corruption and negligence.

A thorough reform of the police is overdue, but the article lacked an essential balancing factor in relation to Arab violence. One must accept that there is a deep-seated malaise in Arab, specifically Moslem Arab, culture and society. It is marked not only by violence, but by dishonesty, widespread gun use, crime, dreadful driving and a general macho approach that enforces excessive female “modesty” and suppresses women while the males are free to behave, too often, in an anti-social or intolerant manner.

All this is not an attempt to generalize or stain an entire community, but to avoid these issues and place the emphasis on the police alone is a strategy destined to fail.

PROF. ANTHONY LUDER Rosh Pina

There are the same laws for all Israeli citizens. The problem lies not only in enforcing the law but about the Arab community accepting the laws of the land.

This is where their leaders come into the picture. Arabs are killing Arabs. Why? Do they lack respect for one another? Why are honor killings not outlawed by their own community? Why is shooting guns at a wedding ceremony tolerated? Where are shooters in the Arab community buying these guns and bullets?

The Arab community is suspicious of the police. They do not cooperate with them and any law enforcement is viewed as racial discrimination. They don’t cooperate with the police and then go on strike against police inaction. Amazing!

FREYA BINENFELD Petah Tikva