Dave hasn’t had the chance to post much about the Acco riots and the post I wrote yesterday about what happens on Yom Kippur, even in non religious neighborhoods was not meant to be about the riots. I had that post in my mind long before I knew what happened in Acco.
However, for 5 days now there have been riots in Acco all from an incident on the eve of Yom Kippur, well after Jewish residents had locked up their cars. It’s in all the major news outlets but they’re nearly all missing the crucial background.
The point is that any car, driving toward crowds of children riding their bikes on roads that are EXPECTED to be car free would look like a terror attack. It’s not about the kind of phony offense of religious sensibilities that even the Jerusalem Post is touting. It’s about threat to life. The rioting Jews are not religious: “… loutish Jewish youths – overwhelmingly not haredi …” (same Jpost link as below).
Muslims are trying to legitimise their own phony Muslim right not to be offended by equating it with a Jewish right and as usual the bigger picture is being missed.
If he’d driven past the people in North Tel Aviv where I am (who were picnicking in the parks) they wouldn’t have been “offended”, they’d have been pissed off that someone might hit their children.
Just what Jamal was doing on Yom Kippur eve in a Jewish neighborhood – where virtually no cars except emergency vehicles are on the road – is in dispute. His claim is that, accompanied by his son and the son’s friend, he was picking up his daughter from her fiancé’s place. The Jewish youths say he was blasting music and smoking a nargila in an act of ostentatious provocation. The initial police report backed the youths’ version and suggested that Jamal was also intoxicated.
The last few “Sudden Jihad Syndrome” car attacks in Jerusalem have all been stopped with a gun by off duty security people or private citizens. Israelis have very little faith in on duty security services tackling Muslims. So many (even lefties) have told me that the law is not working equitably for Muslims (which is the inverse perception the rest of the world has!). Starting a riot, however, is wrong in every circumstance.
This whole incident smells like a manufactured Jihadi provocation directed from the local Mosque. I would not have been surprised if they were looking for the driver (and even his young son) to be shot (you can imagine this would be like hitting the jackpot for people who sacrifice their children).
Some comments on Israellycool about the roads in the Galil are very revealing showing that the ever increasing percentage of Muslim Arabs in the area has meant this trend (of non-religious observance of no driving on YK) has not really got going. Its the quiet Jihad but its all still Jihad in the end.
The comments at the JPost are amazing too, Israelis are really, really angry with their government and multiculturalism and this is the most dangerous place in the world to have tried this nonsense:
9. ET TU, Jerusalem Post editor?You have misread the Acre riots. And you are clueless as to what Jews in Israel are feeling . We are afraid of these Arabs living among us. These Arabs that we are FORCED to live with . These Arabs that should be arrested for their treason against the state. They hate us and are only waiting for the opportunity to murder us. But this “mulit-cultural” nonsense is forced down our throats. the Jews are once again not even allowed to defend themselves in their own country.
