And remember, children: Dignity, always dignity.

Two pictures of Tig. First: Dignity.

Second: Not so much.

Don’t believe everything you read in the papers about the riots going into their fifth day in Akko/Acre. The current media line, even in Israel, is that Jews are mostly to blame.

This is a lie.

Even as I write this, another car was torched Sunday morning. A car owned by a Jew. Torched by Arab “vandals.” Funny how that doesn’t spark a light in the geniuses over in the police department who are blaming the Jews for reacting to threats on their community. And the media have jumped on that bandwagon—even the Post.

Responding to false rumors that the driver had been badly wounded, around 500 Arabs - some armed with axes according to eyewitnesses - then marched into the eastern neighborhoods, chanting “Death to the Jews” as the mob smashed hundreds of cars and stores.

Today, a segment of the city’s Jewish population will try to take their revenge.

“This is our city. What happened on Yom Kippur was a pogrom. We had to hide in our own homes and turn off the lights as the mob passed,” said Datya Bracha Malka, a middle-aged resident of the city, en route to a demonstration held to protest Yom Kippur’s events.

“All of the cars on our road were damaged. Some were flipped over and burned,” recounted Herzl Malka, her husband and an independent businessman. “The TV news has swept this under the carpet.”

This was in the Jerusalem Post. Let’s hear an eyewitness account of the riot when it first started, on Yom Kippur.

Dozens of Jewish cars are broken and glass is all over, all the Jewish stores in the main street of Akko are glass broken and things were stolen from the inside of them- not even one policeman is around!! A lot of young Arab children are calling towards me-” Itbach elyahud” which means kill the Jews. Not even one Arabic store is damaged and the glass is all over.

Let us remember that Jews did not mob Arab neighborhoods after the car drove into a crowd of children. This was an Arab mob heading into the Jewish neighborhoods of Akko. And how did this happen? Like this:

Around 11 pm, we heard a lot of screaming and we saw a car driving very fast in between the people and one child from Tali’s school got hurt. We were sure that we have a terror act like in Jerusalem and as there was no policeman around we have to stop the driver. When the driver came to a parking lot he finally stopped and people tried to catch him but he ran upstairs to an Arabic family who leaved near by. Suddenly came 8 Arabic policeman who tried to calm down the people but another Arabic car came in driving like a crazy and it was a miracle that no one got hurt. Young Jewish kids who were very angry that the Arabs did not respect Yom Kippur and drove with their car to the Jewish neighborhood start throwing stones and did not behave very nice.- The policemen just stood there and did nothing!

Meanwhile the Imams of the mosques (who get salaries from the Israeli government to be the Arabs rabbis) activate there mosques speakers, which were put there on behalf of the Israeli government for prays, to call their people to come and hurt the Jews.

The Arab police did nothing, and the Israeli police did not respond for two hours.

My friend who leaves near the Arabs gathering place, saw how they destroyed her two cars and then the came to her house shouting: kill the Jews, kill the Jews.

She begged for the police to come but- no respond! The Arab policemen who were in charge at that night did not respond. She called other police stations in the near by city but- no respond! Not even one policeman wanted to take responsibility to the situation because they know that at the end , if you do something against the Israeli Arabs you will be guilty.

My friend was in life danger and at last she entered with all her family to her home shelter and closed the door, praying that they will not be killed.
Around 1AM those Arabs started the Pogrom- they did not miss one Jewish car and destroyed all of them- the Arab policemen were behind them in the car doing nothing!

Around 4 AM they left our neighborhood.

Efrat, the eyewitness, has a theory on what happened. She says the Islamist politicians in Akko are being edged out, and that they started the riot to get back into the public focus. I would go you one better: The fact that this was responded to almost immediately by an organized call from the mosques leads me to think that Hamas has been plotting something like this for a long time. The Islamists are deep within Israeli Arab society, and we have seen more and more Israeli Arabs taking roles in terror attacks. I don’t believe this was in any way an accident, or a spontaneous outbreak of violence. Neither do I believe that it is being continued by Jewish instigators.

Who has the most to gain by these attacks? Who will be blamed, in the end, and who will the world insist should respect the fact that Muslims don’t celebrate Yom Kippur?

Lastly, read Brian of London’s explanation at Israellycool on how this is not about offending Jews by driving on Yom Kippur.

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…“.

I’m putting two and two together here. And it’s adding up to jihad.

The former speaker of the Iranian parliament has announced his candidacy for president of Iran. You’ll be told he’s a “reformist” who will bring a new viewpoint and attitude to the office. Don’t believe it. The “reformist” candidate—who owes his political career to Ayatollah Khameini—is going to be nothing but more of the same. From an interview last year:

Q: What is the difference between Etemad-e-Melli and other reformist parties such as al Musharaka party [Islamic Iran Participation Front] and how do you regard the future of reform in Iran?

A: We have announced our political program but we have not declared the differences between us and the rest of the reform parties in Iran – that is for the people to judge. They need to look at the different parties and decide what the differences are between them. We are a party that embraces all the classes within society: students, workers, professionals and the clergy. Our party operates within the general framework of the Iranian republic’s constitution, which means it adheres to the ‘republic’ and the ‘Islamic’ elements in it. For it to be a republic means that all the political institutions must be elected by the people and to be Islamic means that it must comply with the rules of Islam.

Our approach relies upon Imam Khamenei’s example (Khatt al Imam – followers of the line of the Imams). We try to compete with a strong presence in all of the elections, we are doing this now so that we may reach power and service the people. With the exception of Israel, we believe that Iran should have good relations with all the countries – even the United States. Our policy is to alleviate the tensions between Iran and the rest of the world, and to negotiate and succeed in unity. It is only natural for us to strive towards having good relations with the Islamic world and the countries in the region. However it must be said that the US was very harsh with Iran. [...] We can negotiate and discuss issues with the US but it must be on a fair and equal basis, it cannot feel superior to us or exercise preferential treatment on our behalf.

Neither will he bring any change regarding Iranian nukes.

In terms of the nuclear issue, Iran is facing external pressure from the US and the Zionist regime – in addition to some false statements that were declared in Iran and that were not premeditated, which have led to increased pressures.

If he runs—and that’s a big if, because nobody runs for office without getting approved by the mullahs—expect the world media to fall all over itself declaring that he is a “reformist” and that he will make big changes in Iran. Maybe he’ll make some internal changes, but Iran’s foreign policy will remain exactly the same. At the end of the day, the president is merely a figurehead. He always does what the mullahs—and especially Khameini—want him to do.

It’s a little early but Elder of Ziyon noted a “news” story:

Settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank attacked a Palestinian family collecting olives on Saturday morning, a government official told Ma’an.

Mayor Burin Ali Eid of the village of Burin, near Nablus, said a fight broke out when settlers “chopped down five olive trees” owned by the family.

Local Palestinian sources said that settlers cut down 15 olive trees in other Nablus-area attacks on farmers.

And another Palestinian propaganda site, AFP has the story too:

Two Palestinian farmers were lightly wounded today when they were attacked by people they said were Jewish settlers from Yitzhar who tore down around 15 olives trees while the Palestinians were collecting the harvest.

Elder of Ziyon notes a reason for skepticism.

Yitzhar is a religious Jewish village and the residents would not desecrate the Sabbath by chopping down any trees, so it is clear that these claims are lies.

He also links to a conflicting report.

I’ve blogged about the olive vandalism stories in the past. If you pay attention they usually happen in late October or early November. Boker Tov Boulder, some years ago linked to a plausible explanation why these incidents always occurred at the same time of year.

A widely-published AP photo of an Arab woman weeping and embracing an allegedly chopped-down tree (similar photos were taken by Reuters, AFP, and others] shows that the trunk is intact, and that only the top branches are cut off - as if it had been purposely pruned. In fact, the Haifa-based Land of Israel Task Force says that this is exactly what happened.

“The left-wingers and Arabs pulled the same trick last year,” Task Force head Aviad Visuly said, “and using the same method.” Photos of the trees show that the branches were sawed off in a manner that is beneficial to the trees. “Why would vandals bother sawing off each individual branch? Wouldn’t they just cut down the trunk?”

The branches begin growing back 2-3 months after they are cut, and grow to full size within two years. “In the meanwhile,” Visuly said, “the orchard owners receive stipends from the Saudis, via the PA.”

Now I realize that the incident yesterday is a little early and the damage in the AFP photograph doesn’t match the description of “pruning.” However, it is common for the Palestinians to blame Jews for damaging olive trees. As AFP notes elsewhere:

For Palestinians, who start harvesting olives this month across the West Bank, olives are not only an important agricultural product, the olive tree also symbolizes their attachment to the land.

Olive trees are symbolic, and charging Jews with damaging them is an effective way to perpetuate grievances against Israel. I have to agree with Elder that this wasn’t a case of “settlers” vandalizing the trees. Given the reported injuries - to two brothers - I’d guess that this was more likely the result of a clan clash than a assault by the resident of Yitzhar.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.