‘There is no excuse for rockets, or for violence on the streets’

In this post when the violence erupted last week, PETA PELLACH is ashamed and furious as Jews and Arabs turn on each other

WHAT TO WRITE? I can't be silent but I am frightened that whatever I say will be both inadequate and too much.

Mobs, gangs, criminal groups (Arab and Jewish) are wandering around in at least three cities and the police have lost control and lost credibility.

I am disgusted.

People are scared to be in some streets. There is supposed to be a curfew in Lod but the television is still showing violence in the streets. And there is lawlessness in Bat Yam and Tiberias, too.

I am ashamed. How could Jews behave the way I am seeing them behave tonight?

Today, I went to the butchers and the young man who served me was a Muslim. When I wished him well for the Eid, he smiled and thanked me. The man who delivered my groceries, the same one who has been doing that job since we have lived here, is a devout Muslim.

This afternoon he was exhausted after his day of fasting. He is gentle and friendly. He knows me - we ask after each other's families and have waved at each other when our paths have crossed outside his work situation.

I say this in case I now go on to create the impression that we are divided between Jews and Arabs and that we are all each other's enemies.

But we are in a war and it can't be ignored. The evil instigators of and perpetrators of violence need to be weeded out and stopped.

A five-year old boy died after a direct hit from a Hamas rocket on his home, a flat in a multi-storey building.

That is the first thing on my mind. I am so sad, for him, for his family and for everyone who is bereaved or injured - on both sides of this horrible conflict.