On Wednesday, four boys aged 13 were arrested by the police after having sex with a girl of their own age. They had consumed massive quantities of vodka and had gotten the girl drunk too. They took advantage of her in her state of intoxication.
Police received four calls about seeing the boys in a Ramat Gan park with the girl. Patrol cars arrived at the scene and spotted the party.
According to a Dan Region police investigation led by one Chief Superintendent Rafi Regev, the group of adolescents sexually attacked the girl for several hours while they went through a number of parking lots in the area.
The four youths suspected of the attack are awaiting a pending trial at the Juvenile Court and the police seek to extend their detention.
In other news, Ynet had a feature story about IT Works, an independent charity that has been operating in Israel since 2006. They are now introducing the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP). This is a holistic program for at risk Israeli teens that combines technological education with peer volunteering and personal mentoring. The program seeks to prepare high school dropouts for national army service and skilled employment in local communities.
Most at-risk Israeli youth are susceptible to poverty because of unemployment in their young and stupid years. Those who have left school without attaining a high school education often turn to criminal careers. Many of these otherwise good kids lack proper family support and live in foster homes.
YEP encourages positive engagement within the community by teaching useful employment skills, and prepares at-risk Israeli youth for integration into the skilled workforce by building vocational skills.
YEP courses are open to Jewish, Druze and Arab kids between the ages of 15 and 18. The program will occur in six low-income communities throughout the country in the first year of the program. Every class is comprised of 25 students from the local area.
The country’s National Insurance Institute has committed to fund 50% of 18 YEP cohorts over the next three years.
IT Works will be running two programs this year in Kiryat Gat and Netanya for Israeli Jews; in Umm al-Fahm for Israeli Arabs, and last but not least, in Usfiya and Shfaram for Israeli Druze.
And on a more positive note, to the side of the Jordan Valley road, greenhouses and long palm trees ornament the vista, demonstrating the economic cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians.
It’s now a battle of wills between mayor 
Not only is political or nationalistic terrorism a problem, but that against certain interest groups too. A long gunman wearing a mask burst into a central Tel Aviv gay community center late Saturday night, firing an automatic weapon at the crowd of young people who had gathered there. The result left two persons dead and at least 12 more wounded; four of them critically. The center, located on Nahmani Street, off Ahad HaAm, was a well known meeting place for young homosexuals and lesbians, as well as for those who weren’t quite sure what their actual sexual “orientation” really was, but needed a place to discover themselves. Most of the victims of the shooting were teenagers between 16 and 18. The two killed included a male counselor, Yaniv Katz (26), and a young woman, Liz Tarbishi (17). 
On the one hand, Channel 10 Israel is going 
Despite the recent terrorist attack in Dimona and continued Qassam missile attacks on Sderot, Israel police say they actually have more time now for conducting what they consider to be normal police activities. New Head Police Inspector General Dudi Cohen disclosed that in the year 2007, the number of murders actually decreased in Israel by 21%. Although many serious crimes such as aggravated assault, robbery, and rape have not shown significant deceases, at least murders have, according to Cohen. 
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