In Israel, Concerns About Law And Order

TV Host's Death Prompts Inquiry

JERUSALEM, Aug. 20 -- In the evolution of Israeli television, Dudu Topaz was part Johnny Carson, part Howard Stern and part Mickey Rourke -- a comedy show host who drew unprecedented ratings, often went lowbrow and was no stranger to trouble off camera.

On Thursday, the man considered one of Israel's top entertainers through the 1990s hanged himself in an Israeli jail while awaiting trial on charges of organizing attacks against television executives he accused of blocking efforts to revive his flagging career.

Topaz's demise is the latest in a series of tabloid-worthy deaths that have stoked concern here about routine law and order.

In the past two weeks, the dismembered bodies of a mother and her adult daughter were found scattered near Tel Aviv, and the mother's boyfriend is a suspect; a Tel Aviv resident was beaten to death in front of his family by a gang of teenagers during an evening stroll at the beach; and a Jerusalem woman was stabbed in her apartment, apparently by her tenant.

The spate of incidents has prompted a mid-summer hearing by the parliament, calls for government investigations and an overhaul of the Israeli criminal justice system, and, according to local media reports, a surge in gun-permit applications.

"Undoubtedly, this will be remembered as bloody August," said Simha F. Landau, a professor at Hebrew University's Institute of Criminology.

There is no evidence that the murder rate in Israel is rising, Landau said, but the recent wave of killings and their grisly nature have created "a bit of panic."

The death of Topaz comes as a shock to a nation that both loved and often scolded him: People watched in record numbers when he promised that aliens would visit his set, but they were put off when he bit one of his guests.

The criminal charges against Topaz were audacious enough: that he hired thugs to beat up top TV executives he accused of keeping him off the air since his long-standing variety show was canceled four years ago.

But the circumstances of his death are even more so. Under suicide watch because of an attempted insulin overdose shortly after his June arrest, Topaz took an electric cord into a bathroom Thursday morning, tied both ends around a faucet and his neck, and flung himself toward the floor, a prison official said.

Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful, said Israeli prisons spokeswoman Sivan Weizmann.

"We knew that he was in danger of killing himself, so we put him in a cell with five other prisoners and two cameras that watched him 24 hours a day," Weizmann said.

An investigation has been launched.

Topaz's prime-time, one-hour "HaRishon BaBidur" -- or "First in Entertainment" -- began in the early 1990s, just as Israeli television expanded from a single state broadcaster to an array of commercial stations.

Topaz had free rein, and his stunts included having audience members throw chocolate in the mouth of an overweight guest and ridiculing Jews of non-European descent, said Raanan Shaked, who covered Topaz's heyday as the television writer for Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

It may not have appealed to Israel's intellectual elite, but the ratings soared -- until a few years ago.

"When you hit the summit of fame, unfortunately, it is difficult to deal with a downfall," said Yaakov Mendel, chairman of the Israeli Union of Performing Artists and an associate of Topaz. "Not everyone is capable of dealing with it."