PM's 5-point plan to fight violence: minimum sentences, limits on alcohol

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday revealed a five-point plan to reduce the level of violence in Israeli society.

The plan, which he presented during a joint interview with Army Radio and Israel Radio, will include changing the law to ensure stiffer sentences for crimes of violence, restricting the sale of alcohol, establishing municipal police forces, introducing an anti-violence curriculum in the schools, and expanding the "Cities Without Violence" program. The latter program, which currently operates in dozens of cities under the aegis of the Public Security Ministry, has so far led to a 30-percent drop in violence in the cities where it is being implemented.

Netanyahu said his goal was "a policy of zero tolerance" toward violence. "I am not prepared to accept terror of any kind. If missiles are being fired, the harsh response will come immediately. In the same way, violence is a kind of domestic terror that we will not accept."

"I think it is an untenable situation when a person leaves his home to walk on the beach and is murdered with shocking violence, or when older people are beaten almost to death in their homes; when children suffer from violence in the schools, or kids are stabbed when they go out for a night's fun," he said on the broadcast.

Some of the points in Netanyahu's plan are not new. "Cities Without Violence" has been going on for years, and Netanyahu announced during his election campaign that he favored the establishment of municipal police forces.

As for his proposal to legislate minimum sentences for crimes of violence, this is controversial. Police sources have noted over the past few weeks that global experience shows that judges frequently prefer to acquit suspects rather than impose a harsh minimum sentence for relatively light crimes. But Netanyahu insisted yesterday that "prison sentences must be longer."

The premier did have something new to say about legislation to limit the sale of alcohol: He intends to prohibit kiosks and gas stations from selling liquor altogether, and will propose legislation making it illegal for stores to sell alcohol after 9 P.M.

Figures released by the police yesterday reveal the extent to which kiosks are involved in selling alcohol and drugs to minors. During a law enforcement sweep over the past few months focused on kiosks that illegally sell alcohol and drugs, police said they confiscated 4,049 tubes for smoking drugs, 1,159 bongs, 1,979 capsules of the stimulant hagigat, 269 Viagra and Cialis pills, 216 bottles of smuggled, counterfeit brand-name alcohol, and 136 drug substitutes from Morocco. Moreover, 30 kiosks were closed for selling liquor to minors, and 117 suspects were detained for questioning.

"Although we are one of the countries in the Western world with the lowest levels of alcohol consumption and violence, there is a rise, and this trend must be changed," Netanyahu said yesterday. "There are countries that legislated similar laws and managed to lower the level of violence."

During a discussion of verbal violence, Netanyahu criticized remarks made a few weeks ago by his vice premier, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon, comparing Peace Now to a virus.

"The left is not a virus and the settlers are not a cancer," Netanyahu said. "We have legitimate disagreements, but we must maintain unity by preserving mutual respect among political rivals."

Netanyahu also said he regretted a past comment that "the left has forgotten what it means to be Jewish."

"That was a mistake then, and it's a mistake now," he said.