I was born and raised Lod. My extended family still lives there, and, to a large degree, it is still my home. And so, since Tuesday morning I've been receiving a steady stream of photos and videos of burning houses, shattered windows, and a rioting Arab mob, along with a repeated request: "Talk about us, bring our helplessness to public awareness."
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I won't mince words, then: what is happening in Lod is an organized nationalist Arab attack on state institutions, Jewish symbols, and the city's Jewish residents, simply because they are Jewish.
Residents have been telling me that the riots follow a tense Ramadan, during which almost every evening and night (including on Memorial Day) shots were fired indiscriminately and fireworks were set off. The municipality, the police, and all the other government authorities did absolutely nothing to address the anarchy running rampant in the streets.
I know Lod, its residents, and its mayor. None of them are extremists or Arab haters. There was no reason for the Arabs to riot, except for the fact that they can, and that the authorities are not really interested in dealing with them.
As with everything else, the approach towards the Arab minority is dominated by "political correctness," which sees any condemnation of Arab violence as racist. The result is a loud and violent minority within the Arab public that does not recognize the state and its symbols is not subject to its laws and regulations and threatens public order in the most basic sense of the term. This threat is not confined to Lod; it is spreading to the entire country and about to spiral out of control.
The threat is not only civil, but also national. The violent Arab minority does not suffice with full equal rights and affirmative action of which they could only dream in Arab countries; they seek to obliterate the state's Jewish identity, its national anthem, and the Israeli flag.
Former police commander of the Jerusalem District Maj. Gen. Uri Bar-Lev said yesterday that Israel's Arab society is violent, particularly internally, but that the fear of speaking about the issue and acting to combat it causes the violence to brutally seep out, threatening public order and the state's Jewish identity.
The Lod riots are just the beginning of the wave of violence that will engulf the entire country if we don't pull ourselves together and act now.
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