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by Karl Lagerfeld

What Happened To
Zionist Youth Clubs?

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Its frequency still pales in comparison to America,
but an increase in youth violence prompts Israelis to take note.

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Allied Member ASID

J

o Americans, the
public debate over
youth violence that
has taken hold in Is-
rael the last few weeks
might sound old and per-
haps even banal.
But this is Israel, where
people have only recently
woken up to the fact that
some children like to beat
up people, knife them,
sometimes even shoot
them to death.
Where did we go wrong?
Israelis are asking. What
causes this madness?
What can we do about it?
Israelis began worrying
about youthful violence af-
ter two boys, ages 14 and
15, admitted to murdering
a cab driver on Jan. 9 in
the Tel Aviv suburb of Her-
zliya Pituach, a coastal
strip of million-dollar-plus
villas.
One of the boys — each
accuses the other — fired
five shots into the head
and heart of the driver
from behind. They were
planning also to take his
money — they panicked
after the shooting, howev-
er, and ran — as part of a
projected string of sensa-
tional robbery/killings.
Newspapers have dubbed
the incident the "Clock-
work Orange Murders."
A couple of weeks later
two other boys, ages 17
and 18, were stabbed crit-
ically during a pub brawl
in Haifa's "Alcohol Alley."
This is a concentration of over
50 pubs and discotheques that
draw northern youngsters by
the thousands every weekend.
Along with the "good kids" who
just come to dance and drink a
few beers, Alcohol Alley also
draws youth gangs, drug users
and young men who don't go
anywhere without a knife in
their pocket. Brawls break out
in one or more of the pubs vir-
tually every weekend.
As the notion that Israel has
its share of sociopathic youngsters
began to catch on, there were
more revelations. A few groups of
high-school thugs were printing
up business cards marked "pro-
fessional bodyguard," and shak-
ing down students for money in
return for "protection."

A couple of high schoolers tes-
tified before the Knesset Edu-
cation Committee that some of
their male classmates, hooked
on the Friday afternoon
wrestling telecasts, were imi-
tating the wrestlers in class -
beating the hell out of each oth-
er, sometimes even breaking
chairs over each other's heads.
The media stoked the gener-
al dismay, at times reporting in-
dividual incidents of youthful
depravity — such as the group
of hoodlums that allegedly set
cats on fire — as the latest
thing. In all, the country has
gone a little nuts over this is-
sue; the exaggerations have
been fierce.
The topic has been hashed
and rehashed on TV talk shows
and radio call-in programs. One

would think that Israel had
turned into a Jew-on-Jew
killing ground, but that's far
from the truth.
In all of 1992, 18 Israeli ju-
veniles (below age 18) were
charged with murder, attempt-
ed murder or manslaughter.
This is not America. Parents are
not afraid to send their kids to
public schools, and no part of
any Jewish city or town is off-
limits to people passing
through, on foot or by car.
Still, Israel is a much rougher
place than it used to be. It's been
a long time since teenage cul-
ture was dominated by Zionist
youth groups, since the leisure
activities of choice were hiking
and folkdancing. Violence does
occur, and drugs are not a rar-
ity.

