Yossi Klein Halevi writes on page 101 of his new book about the morning after the Israelis took the Western Wall and reunited Jerusalem at the end of the Six Day War:
Some Israelis came to loot. They smashed windows and pried open the shutters of shops on Sala a-Din Street, just outside the Old City walls, filling their cars with groceries and clothes. Paratroopers found themselves patrolling to thwart not only Arab attacks but Israeli plundering…
Among themselves, the paratroopers argued the moral gradations of looting. Was it permitted to take food from a grocery if you intended to eat it immediately, but not permitted to hoard?
Hitchhiking is common in Israel. It was and possibly is common in Australia. How is it common in these countries but thought dangerous in America? Because America is racially diverse and Israel and Australia are more homogeneous. Israelis don’t catch rides from Arabs so much. They trust fellow Jews. During WWII, Australia was 99% white. That breeds social capital aka people trusting each other.
Japan is 99% Japanese and enjoy similarly high level of trust. There’s no looting in Japan after a disaster. San Diego has recently suffered bad fires, but if the fires were located in affluent neighborhoods, there’s unlikely to be any looting because residents have regard for each other’s property.
