In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the famous novel written by the Anglo-Irish author Oscar Wilde, the seemingly ageless protagonist hides a terrible secret: All of his vices have been engraved onto the face of a painted likeness. The inner rot and corruption of Dorian is thus camouflaged by a corrupted mask of eternal youth.
Israel, while relatively young insofar as modern states go, similarly hides inner decay beneath the callow facade of Dizengoff Street chic.
The recent spate of bombing attacks against African illegal immigrants and the attack on a woman in an underground parking lot in Tel Aviv herald what could be the beginning of immense trouble for the "Jewish State" in the years to come.
During the past decade, the Israeli government has focused on fruitless negotiations with the Arabs and the exchange of sword-rattling rhetoric with the Iranians while blindly ignoring a growing problem within its borders whose future consequences could result in an equally dire threat.
It isn't necessary to consult a crystal ball in order to assess the massive problems unchecked third-world immigration can bring, such as crime, violence and urban decay.
A feeling of disenfranchisement among citizens in their own country is usually another corollary result. Indeed, the large-scale settlement of any given population in a foreign land will inevitably cause major problems of resentment.
While much ink has been spilled over the past several years regarding the effects of Islamic and Latin American resettlement, in, respectively, Western Europe and the United States, other areas of the globe have also witnessed outbreaks of immigration-related conflict.
Large scale Chinese emigration to Africa has resulted in riots against that group in Zambia (several times, starting in 2006), Lesotho (2007), Algeria (2009), and the Congo (2010), while Chinese have rioted in Italy (2007) and black Africans have rioted in China (2009). These examples are merely a sample of the many that could be cited worldwide.
The Sudanese, one of the main immigrant collectives currently flooding illegally into Israel, have a particularly bad reputation for lawlessness in Australia, where many of them have migrated legally.
Reporter Richard Kerbaj quotes one Akoc A. Manhiem, a Melbourne-based representative of said community, who speaks of the idealization of violence among many of its younger members: "Most of the young people have grown up thinking that their role models are good fighters ... because (they've) grown up in a violent country," he said. "When you're brought up in a war place, you've grown up experiencing all the war and you want to be a very good fighter. You need to know boxing, shooting, using the spear correctly, hunting - they're all the things you have to know ... for the survival way." ("Refugees 'turning to crime for kicks" by Richard Kerbaj, The Australian, December 27, 2006).
The intervening years have not changed the propensity for violence of the immigrants. In April of 2011, after three straight nights of Sudanese-related brawling in Melbourne, the premier of the state of Victoria, Ted Baillieu, called on community heads to demonstrate some responsibility.
Indeed, "Sudanese-born Victorians are the most violent ethnic group in the state, police figures show." ("Violence a way of life for some Sudanese" by Peter Mickelburough and Nathan Mawby, Herald Sun, April 28, 2011).
Reporters John Masanauskas and Gabrielle Debinski mention that "Sudanese-born Victorians have a disproportionately high rate of assault offenses, according to 2009-10 police data. More than 330 Sudanese migrants and visitors were accused of assault in that year, including 268 street assaults." ("Sudanese migrants call for help to lower high rate of assaults" by John Masanauskas and Gabrielle Debinski, Herald Sun, March 27, 2012).
That this same pattern of unlawful behavior is also now being replicated in Israel is made manifest in a recent police report that states that recently, crime involving Sudanese and Eritrean refugees has increased by many dozens of percentage points, with a steep rise in property crimes, as well as an increase in violent crimes and sexual assaults.
Most Israeli politicians also bear the blame for this developing disaster. Like a bad house-cleaner, they prefer pushing the dust under the carpet rather than actually cleaning the floor.
While the presence of these aimless loafers might make a visit to Tel Aviv's sandy beaches a bit more daunting, the primary burden of day-to-day contact with them falls on the most vulnerable segments of Israeli society, the aged, the poor and the working class. As the immigrants flock to the older parts of the cities in which these less protected groups live, friction becomes inevitable.
The vacuous agitprop mobs who march for the nebulous abstraction of "social justice" seem curiously oblivious to the plight of their beleaguered fellows while migrant labor advocates don't have to live among those for whose rights they so blithely agitate.
Most Israeli politicians also bear the blame for this developing disaster. Like a bad house-cleaner, they prefer pushing the dust under the carpet rather than actually cleaning the floor.
With the exception of individuals such as Michael Ben Ari and Yakov Katz, little sustained attention has been given to the ticking time bomb clicking beneath Israel's collective feet.
Empty promises by the government about border fence construction, large-scale deportation of illegals and a visit by Prime Minister Netanyahu to Africa have resulted in nothing of any real substance.
The resulting frustration that oozes from the moldering body politic of Israeli society feeds the bona fide fears of those who feel they have been abandoned to the abyss by their elected representatives. As recent events have shown, the absence of law in the affected areas will lead to ever increasing violence and probable future bloodshed.
Can Israel, with its endless inter-Jewish squabbling and a belligerent Arab minority, really afford to add more fuel to its already smoldering fire?