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that taught me how the average Israeli Jew perceives the Arabs. Many years ago I had volunteered to serve in the IDF. I made a friend in boot camp, a sabra from the Tel Aviv area. He had graciously invited me to spend a weekend furlough at his parents house. Since I came to Israel from California, I had no family to go to on breaks from military service. When we entered his house, his mother was listening to the radio attentively, a serious expression on her face. Since I hardly spoke Hebrew at the time, I asked her in English what she was listening to. She answered that there had been a terrible highway accident in which a taxi from the Gaza strip, transporting day workers back to Gaza, collided with an Israeli bus. Luckily, she said, no Jews were killed, only 5 Arabs, "so now we can all enjoy the weekend". She, by the way, was college educated and a Labor voter. Over time, I got to listen to Israeli right wingers, typical Likud voters and to their views of Arabs and their ideas regarding what to do with them and to them. Compared to them, she was a very compassionate woman.
