Israelis fear mob war as mafia kingpin killed

A CAR carrying one of Israel’s top mafia kingpins exploded as it travelled in central Tel Aviv, killing him and threatening to unleash an all-out war in Israel’s increasingly violent underworld.

Israeli police officials identified the dead man as Yaakov Alperon, known informally as “Don Alperon”, head of one of the country’s most powerful crime families. The bloodied body was wearing the same polo shirt Alperon was seen sporting earlier in the day at a Tel Aviv courthouse.

Medics said three bystanders, including a 13-year-old boy were also lightly wounded in the explosion.

Israelis are accustomed to violence with their Palestinian neighbours but have traditionally felt relatively safe from violent crime. In recent years, however, mob wars also have plagued Israeli towns and cities.

Rival underworld gangs have waged bloody battles for control of gambling and protection rackets, including one involving bottle recycling.

They target each other with bullets, bombs and even anti-tank missiles in violence that has killed dozens of gangsters and at least eight bystanders in the last three years. Yesterday’s attack was by far the most high-profile to date. The brazen, midday assassination quickly dominated the news, pushing Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza and a summit between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders off the airwaves. TV stations broke into their scheduled programming.

Police officials identified the victim as Alperon, speaking on condition of anonymity because the identification had not been officially made public. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld would say only that he was a “well-known” underworld figure.

Alperon, Israel’s most famous criminal, had also become something of a cultural icon. He and his brothers have given frequent TV interviews and were parodied on comedy shows. His immediate family even took part in a reality TV show.

Alperon had many enemies, including convicted drug lord Zeev Rosenstein, who himself has survived at least seven assassination attempts, and the rival Abutbul and Abarjil families, with whom the Alperons battled over a lucrative bottle recycling racket.

Bottle recycling adds up to a $5 million-a-year (€3.9m) industry, according to estimates by police and environmental groups. Police say criminals sell restaurants protection in exchange for empties, which leave no paper trail and offer crime families a relatively legitimate source of income.

Organised crime, long overshadowed by the Arab-Israeli conflict, has become such a part of everyday life that Israel has its own Sopranos-style TV series, The Arbitrator, in which even synagogues are no refuge from hit men.

In the past, rival families would settle their scores quietly, but as the pot gets richer they are getting bolder, taking more risks and posing a greater threat to public safety.