Mobsters seize control of Israeli public's imagination

[MikeWB]

Mobsters seize control of Israeli public's imagination
By Isabel Kershner
Friday, November 21, 2008
RAANANA, Israel: Had Don Corleone been Jewish, his shiva probably would have looked something like this.

A couple of burly men were guarding the gate to the house of the recently departed Yaakov Alperon, a reputed Israeli crime boss who was killed by a bomb planted in his rented car as he drove along a busy thoroughfare in Tel Aviv this week.

Members of his extensive clan and numerous associates had gathered to sit shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning period, at the family home on a quiet street in this bourgeois suburban town north of Tel Aviv. Behind the high white picket fence topped by security cameras, they were observing the seven-day mourning period in the traditional way. This reporter was allowed in, escorted by one of the henchmen, with the suggestion that the visit be limited to a short condolence call.

In the courtyard, trestle tables were laden with fruit and cakes.

Inside, the house was hushed and dark. The mirrors were covered with sheets; oversize silk flower arrangements seemed to loom out of the gloom.

A portrait of Alperon, also known as Don - but not the Don - was propped up on a table lighted by candles, adding mystique to the heavy décor. He was smiling pleasantly in the picture, though in life he was better known for his withering glare.

Alperon's widow, Ahuva, knelt on cushions on the floor with a plate of cut vegetables beside her, a wisp of a blonde surrounded by a crouching circle of well-wishers. Asked how she was feeling, she gave a long sigh.

The Alperon murder dominated the news for days. A narrow strip of a country, Israel has a limited pool of celebrities. So when Alperon, referred to by many as Israel's Tony Soprano, was killed at 54, the news media got busy.

Immediately after the killing, Ahuva Alperon welcomed the country's top crime reporters into the family home and wept bitterly on camera, begging for pity on her seven children, "young orphans who would no longer be able to say 'Father."' One son, 21, had appeared in a Tel Aviv court that morning, where he was arraigned on charges of threats and extortion. The Israeli don, who had attended the proceeding, was blown up after leaving the courthouse.

Alperon was a mobster, according to the police, the leader of an organized crime family known for racketeering. The family is said to have fought for control of markets ranging from illegal gambling joints, to bottle recycling, to sidewalk flower stalls.

In recent years, though, the Alperons had made themselves more likable, partly by becoming increasingly accessible to the press. A local model, Yael Goldman, even moved in to the family home as part of a television reality show, "Once in a Lifetime," in which people were matched with different, often incongruous, types of families. In general, coverage of some of Israel's recent gangland wars has been marked by a more up-close, human touch. In September, the focus was on Netanya, a city up the coast from Tel Aviv.

Tensions rose there after an assassin tried to kill another reputed crime boss, Charlie Abutbul, by firing into a kiosk where he was eating. Abutbul was wounded along with three passers-by. The police then tried to close down several grilled meat restaurants in Netanya controlled by crime families in what the papers called a "shawarma war."

Yet another reputed crime kingpin, Meir Aberjil, recently showed his softer side. Facing extradition to the United States, where he has been indicted on charges including racketeering, Aberjil broke down in tears in a Jerusalem court a few months ago, protesting his innocence and telling the judge, "I am so scared of America."

In reality, Israel's gangsters are as dangerous as they come. In July, a 31-year-old Israeli woman was shot and killed in front of her husband and two young children when she got in the way of a botched mob hit on a beach in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv. Rami Amira, another reputed crime figure, was believed to have been the real target.

Alperon, who had survived at least three assassination attempts, was not short of enemies. One man widely named as a suspect in his murder was Amir Mulner, who left a 2006 mob convention with a stab wound to the neck - one that was widely attributed to the Alperons. The Aberjils and Alperons also had a long-running feud, after a member of the Aberjil family was beaten by the Alperons at a busy Tel Aviv intersection.

Coincidentally, the day after the killing of Alperon, two criminals, said to be associated with the Aberjils, were sentenced to prison terms for conspiring to kill Alperon's brother, Nissim.

Goldman, the model, had mixed feelings about her brush with the Alperons. "You see 'The Sopranos' and it sounds sexy that some Mafioso comes and charms you into the sunset," she remarked, according to the popular daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "But in reality it is the opposite. It is very intimidating, scary, not kosher," she said.

After Alperon's assassination, his widow called for an end to the cycle of war and revenge. At the funeral, however, one son swore over the grave that he would "take off" the killer's "head, arms and legs."

"There won't even be a head left to bury," he said.