Unholy behavior in the Holy Land

First there were those Holy Land hotties, then the Israeli neo-Nazis. Now, to finish out the trifecta of unholy behavior in God’s country, the j. has this story:

jerusalem—When an explosion goes off on a busy Israeli street these days, it seems as likely to be a mob hit as a Palestinian attack.

Rival underworld gangs are waging bloody battles for control of gambling and protection rackets, targeting each other with bullets, bombs and anti-tank missiles. Their battles extend even into the bottle recycling business.

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Policemen have been caught feeding information to the mob and smuggling drugs from Egypt. A bodyguard of former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres allegedly moonlighted as a hit man for a crime family.

At least the rise of mob families offers a model for co-existence:

Police officials, speaking on condition on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said a dozen major crime families operate in Israel, and are as ethnically diverse as the country’s population. Arab and Jewish crime families are known to work together trafficking drugs.

(Hat tip: Bintel Blog)