I heard a podcast from radio program "Democracy Now" this morning that left me seething. It reported the riots in Akko (Acre) as having stemmed from a Palestinian man "mistakenly" driving into a Jewish neighborhood and sparking violence from Jews. This was "reporting." That's it. Basically, "those damn Jews attacked a poor hapless man for nothing more than driving through their neighborhood." Ugh.

So. First of all, it's really much more complicated than what DN bothered to "report." What MAJOR fact omitted by DN was that this "mishap" drive through a religious neighborhood occurred on YOM KIPPUR. It is the most solemn of days...often referred to as the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Some say that the 48 year old driver was drunk, careening at high speed through the neighborhood nearly harming pedestrians and blaring loud music. The driver, who was arrested for reckless driving and for harming religious sensibilities, of course denied anything except using very poor judgment. So, that's ok with me; maybe that's the truth. I read another story about this wherein the man was simply on his way to pick up his daughter at 11pm. The daughter was said to have been at a friend's house baking sweets for a wedding. If that's the truth, it's a perfectly legitimate errand to be on and I feel sorry for the family to have to deal with this situation.. ..even if it was really poor planning and judgment to drive on Yom Kippur through this very religious neighborhood. If the other story is the truth, then the man is not so sympathetic a character. But, either way, the situation is far more complicated than just a man driving, for whatever purpose, inadvertantly through the "wrong" neighborhood. What Democracy Now failed to report is the HUGE SIGNIFICANCE of the timing of this errand through that neighborhood. It was, whatever its purpose,  disrupting prayer and the strictest prohibition about working and driving on this most holy of days. In a very religious neighborhood, this would be very distressing. In an environment of fear of a terror attack on Yom Kippur, it would easily incite violence, no surprise.

Do you remember the spark of the intifada when Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount? Such an uproar over a person visiting a holy site in Old Jerusalem that sparked riots? Later, folks opined that it was Jewish "religious insensitivity" that incited the Palestinian Muslims to violence an rioting in that instance.  So, it is the same here. Why so quick to judge when it is Jewish religious sensibility that has been offended? 

Listen. We have two populations living in relative peace, with an undercurrent of tension. The tension is, quite frankly, the result of a division of justice and equality between Arab Israeli Citizens and Jewish Israeli Citizens and also hatred fed for hatred's sake and intolerance maintained for the sake of intolerance. So, there is already this tension on both sides of the equation. But, generations of families have been able to live together peaceably because of an understanding and mutual respect for religious and cultural differences. Respect and a demonstration of religious "sensitivity" could be something as simple as not flaunting your falafel in front of a fasting Muslim friend. That's the kind of sensitivity we're talking about here.

But, to riot over this? A reminder of the holiday and an escort out of the neighborhood would have been too hard? The stone throwing and rioting is way out of line here. On both sides.

Akko is a seaside town north of Haifa on the Mediterranean Coast. About 52,000 people live there all the time. The demographic of certain neighborhoods have changed. Most notably, the establishment of a yeshiva teaching religious nationalism has been placed in the middle of an Arab neighborhood. I have read that there are 500-600 families who have moved into the area to stir the pot this way. Instead of helping to build and encourage the peaceful co-existence of Arab and Jewish Israelis and to integrate the neighborhoods rather than segregate them, we have the extremists on BOTH sides screaming "death to Arabs" or "death to Jews." The whole thing sickens and embarrasses me.

Now, enter the police force. Ok, arrest 64 people. But I haven't heard anything that is intended to really get at the heart of the problem: fear of the other. Until today. I read that there was to be a coalition of local rabbis and sheiks along with the mayor of Akko to face-to-face effort to hash this out and to determine whether all of this new unrest has something to do with Gaza transplants on the Arab side and West bank transplants on the Jewish side moving in large numbers into the area for the express purpose of waging a turf war. Meanwhile the 52,000 citizens trying to go about their business no doubt wish those people would all go back to wherever they arrived in Akko from and quit stirring a pot that was not boiling over before their arrival. Well, there have been a few other things, but not RIOTS and street warring over which "side" is pushing for more territory in a given neighborhood. Good grief.

Finally, I read today that to make things even "better" for the citizenry of Akko, the PFLP (Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine) threatened to murder Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman. This is to recall the murder in 2001 at the Hyatt hotel in Jerusalem of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. The same PFLP took credit and 2 of its principals were recently sentenced to concurrent life sentences for their parts in the assassination. So, talk about turning a stupid, insensitive wrong turn on the wrong day into a very religious neighborhood into a mountain from a molehill. Stupid. Complicated. Extreme.

BUT! Democracy Now you did not HELP this situation around the world. In the world of public opinion, it does not promote peace to serve up the "sexy" story of the "poor Palestinian man" attacked by the "damned Jews" "JUST" because the guy drove into their neighborhood. You know the significance of the Yom Kippur War in the national memory of Israelis. You know the tension and fear of attacks on such days. Tensions are high. You know that the most significant fact about this incident from the point of view of the Jews in the neighborhood was Yom Kippur. There would have been fear that this was maybe a car bomb....concern that no one would drive through there who knew anything about Yom Kippur and this neighborhood and what an insensitive and insulting thing that was to do, even by mistake. It was wrong for the Akko religious Jews in that neighborhood to stone the car. This was a matter for the police. But, to boil down this story in the way you did was just irresponsible. It was meant to paint a picture of the Jews of Akko as oppressors ...this is the only explanation for the omission of the pertinent facts and the ADMISSION OF WRONGDOING by the driver.

There are extremists on every side of these troubles, people. This week's Torah portion, Ha'azinu challenges us to see whether we are getting drunk on the wrong wine. We can't just lament the blood spilled on "our" side, whatever side you think that is. Our challenge has to be to decry all of it in order to stop it. How would it feel to drop your partisanship and just seek to help; help restore just public officials and do, as did Yitzak Rabin, everything to bring parity to the situation between Israeli citizens- ALL Israeli citizens. The suspicion and political rock throwing just provides fuel for those young men to run out in the streets and throw rocks at each other and, God Forbid, continuing chanting "death" to each other.

Next time, DN, I know you have the fact checkers to do this. Get the facts and print them all. Don't incite more of this hatred by your failure to report the whole story. Blame assignment is non-productive....and you know,,,,you know so well how complicated this thing is. Don't broadcast pablum bogey man bullshit. Get it right. And pray you have hurt no more kids by inciting violence with your words.

Extremists on both sides sit down and listen. Extremists in the news room.....you, too. As long as you're encouraging a "pick a side" mentality....you push peace further away. Instead let's identify the problems that led to this and FIX it. No more rhetoric. No more rocks. No more excuses. You EITHER WANT PEACE OR YOU DON'T.

Your Akko story was not in the promotion of peace. Try it again the right way. Encourage people- tell us about the rabbis and sheiks and civic leaders working to solve the issues bubbling under the service. Make the peacemakers the newsmakers.