Just my two cents

You know it has to be a pretty clear cut case of dumb when something gets me to agree with one of our fifth columnists Arab Members of Knesset.

I mean seriously... this has gotten completely out of hand. 

An Arab driver - by accident or design - drives through a Jewish neighborhood in Acre (next to Haifa) on Yom Kippur and the Jewish residents react as though he has killed someone.  Then the Arab community of Acre circulates a rumor that the Jews have killed the Arab driver and start riots of their own.

Wackiness ensues. 

For years these two dirt-poor communities have lived side-by-side in what passes for peaceful co-existence in this part of the world.  Yet tensions have obviously been close to the surface seeing as it took such a small provocation to light the fuse on almost a week of rioting.

It should be pointed out that the leaders of the Arab community were quick to make a public declaration denouncing the Arab driver for having driven through the Jewish area on Yom Kippur... a gesture that should have been the beginning of the healing. 

Yet once again the Israeli police have decided to ignore their promise of a new era of 'community policing' and have instead opted for the most heavy handed 'solution' by arresting the Arab driver for allegedly speeding during his Yom Kippur drive. Idiots!

I rarely see eye-to-eye with Arab MK Ahmed Tibi, but he makes a good point when,in response to the Arab driver being arrested, he asks "Will police arrest Jews for eating on Ramadan?" 

MK Tibi is right.  I can walk through an Arab area in Jerusalem eating a falafel at mid-day during Ramadan and nobody is going to arrest me.  Heck, I could do so while driving my car at twice the posted speed limit through any Arab neighborhood and the most I'm likely to get is a hefty speeding ticket and possibly a suspension of my license. 

So why is this Arab driver sitting in Jail right now? 

My guess is that our police (and their political bosses) are simply used to ignoring the laws they are sworn to uphold, and instead decided to make up the rules to suit the political climate of the day.

I love that in this country kids can ride their bicycles the length of Tel Aviv on the Ayalon highway at mid-day on Yom Kippur.  Obviously those kids have a different sense of the day than I do (to say the least).   But for them, the day of Yom Kippur is completely unique... something most Diaspora Jews can't even imagine. 

There may very well be a law on the books that prohibits drivers from using the roads on Yom Kippur, but it isn't the law that keeps the cars off the street.  It is a consensus... an agreement by everyone that certain norms will be observed on this day.  And like most laws in a democracy, if at any point even a small minority of the population decide to ignore them, the laws becomes unenforceable.  Just a few cars on the Ayalon would make bicycle riding impossible.

The problem is not a legal one, but rather a social one.  Someone violated the social charter that had been in place for many years, so the first attempt at a solution should have been an effort to repair and reinforce the social charter... not impose an inappropriate and punitive legal penalty.   

The first steps that should have been taken (after order was restored, of course) were to get community leaders together with local government to review the consensus and emphasize the important role that the status quo plays in protecting everyone's rights and sensibilities. 

Rioters who destroyed property and/or harmed people should obviously have been arrested.  But this driver should not be sitting in jail.  Even if it turns out he sped through the Jewish residential area on purpose rather than by accident, the most he should have gotten was a hefty fine and maybe some points on his license.   

In a country where cultural insensitivity is nearly a national pastime, it seems pointless and counter-productive to make it a jail offense.

Just my two cents.