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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
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.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
