Reports of an Arab student rally at Hebrew University in Jerusalem led Israel Radio's news broadcast on Wednesday. According to the report, the students gathered to protest the lack of integration of Christian Arab students in Israel's public service and security fields. This rally for integrating Christian Arabs can be either explained or justified. The explanation is that the evil winds blowing from the Islamic Movement's northern branch have gained a foothold in certain Arab circles, and it is doing all it can to increase the enmity toward Israel. The justification could be that the Muslims are seeking the right to enter these fields like their Christian brothers. Unfortunately, the force behind the demonstration is more the explanation and less the justification -- the desire to cause deepening friction rather than decreasing discrimination and preferential treatment. On the other hand, the Arab extremists have found themselves Jewish partners -- the price-tag hooligans who have routinely harassed and attacked Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and perhaps have expanded their arena of operations inside the Green Line. Any damage caused to a mosque is grotesque and harmful, and it is amplified when it happens on the main highway from Haifa to Tel Aviv, in the Arab town of Fureidis near Zichron Yaakov. As of print time, the government still does not have a clear picture of who these criminals are. There is always the suspicion that these people who graffiti mosques hail from the extreme religious Right; and when vehicles belonging to Arabs are also vandalized there is the added suspicion that secular extremists are also involved in these criminal, borderline terroristic acts. These are not only repulsive criminal offenses, they also do harm to Israel domestically and abroad with the enlightened world. This type of atmosphere seeps into the Israeli spirit and desecrates it, especially the younger generations. One incident, if examined separately of the others, can be perceived as rather insignificant, secondary, too small to matter in the grand scheme of things, but when aggregated into a long line of offenses that don't result in heavy punishment, they can ruin and uproot any good will that exists among Jews and Arabs in Israel. If the Shin Bet and police still do not have any useful intelligence to determine who is behind these reprehensible acts, then they must be allowed to take their proverbial gloves off in order to identify and locate the criminals. A mere slap on the wrist will not suffice; they need to be tried as swiftly as the legally possible and imprisoned for a long time. The ability and efficiency of the legal system is paramount to the overall effort to prevent this damning phenomenon. Deterrence is needed; perhaps even joint civilian patrols comprising Jews and Arabs to dissuade these thugs who crawl out from their holes under cover of darkness. This ugly trend can only be stopped with action, not with declarations from government ministers.
