Increasingly, one would have to say the answer to that question is "no." Ha'aretz reports on the latest atrocity:
A week after an 11-year-old boy was brutally raped in Ra'anana, a Ha'ir reporter learned that police did not act on information about two similar rape attempts that took place in the same neighborhood over the past month.
In both incidents, which took place in two adjacent streets within two weeks, young boys were assaulted from behind and an attempt was made to rape them, but the assailant fled after being spotted by passers-by.
The father of the first boy to have been assaulted filed a complaint with police, but his complaint was treated with suspicion. The police personnel who spoke to the father at the station suggested the incident may have been linked to a dispute the boy is involved in. The boy was not invited to give testimony and was contacted by detectives only after the second rape attempt had been reported. By the time an interview was scheduled, the third, successful, rape attempt had already taken place.
Police said in response that the three incidents are not necessarily linked, and that each of the cases has been transferred to Central District police.
Some 45 days ago, a Ra'anana boy returned home in the afternoon. He was assaulted from behind by a young man as he was preparing to enter the house, and was dragged to a basement near the building's parking space.
After reaching the basement, the man tried to rape the boy, but a neighbor who happened to walk past the basement surprised the assailant and he fled.
In the second incident, which took place some two weeks ago in the same area, a man dragged another boy after grabbing him from behind and began to tear the boy's clothes off. The assailant fled the scene after being walked in on by a woman who lives on that street.
The last, successful, attempt took place last week, when an 11-year-old-boy was assaulted from behind as he was locking his bicycle near his house. The assailant threw the boy into a shed, raped him and then fled. The boy returned to his home, told his parents about the rape and they informed police.
Police were unable to put together a composite portrait of the assailant because the victim did not see his face. A genetic profile of the rapist is being reconstructed based on forensic evidence in the hands of police, but no suspect has been arrested so far.