The violent incidents in Beit Shemesh this week, beginning with little Na’ama Margolese, who was spat on and cursed on her way home from school, and followed by an attack on television crews that had come to cover the news, should set off major alarm bells. The public at large has sensed the danger and Tuesday evening they came to Beit Shemesh in large numbers to demonstrate against this extremist violence and against the ominous threat that it represents. The demonstration is welcome and is evidence of civic involvement and concern and the need to protect society from those who come to destroy it. Even so, it should be remembered that Beit Shemesh is an extreme case, that the hard core among the rioters represents a problematic exception and that most of the ultra-Orthodox population decries this extremism and has itself suffered greatly from it.