Here's an interesting article from today's "The Globe and Mail", Canada's national newspaper:
PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE
In Beersheva, Jews and Arabs share fears
PATRICK MARTIN
January 10, 2009
BEERSHEVA, ISRAEL -- Lawrence and Sammy are the best of friends. Both their sets of parents came from North Africa about the time of Israel's independence in 1948 and settled in this growing community at the north end of the Negev desert. For the past six years, they've lived in the same apartment building, one unit on top of the other.
Both men are quietly religious and raise their children in an atmosphere of national pride and national service. These days, both pray a lot and worry that the Hamas rockets landing on their city might find their families.
There's just one difference that sets these two Israelis apart: Sammy Suisse, 45, is an observant Jew; Lawrence Tarabin, 43, is a Muslim Arab.
"He's one good Arab," says Mr. Suisse, as the men greet each other with a hug. "Jews and Arabs have very good relationships here in Beersheva," Mr. Tarabin says proudly.
These days, those relationships might be tested by the hail of rockets that reach the city from Gaza almost every day.
Not so, says Mr. Tarabin, an officer in Israel's border police service. "Rockets don't distinguish between Arab and Jew."
"In fact," he says, "those rockets are from Iran, and Iran has always hated both our peoples."
Certainly the 185,000 people of Beersheva hate the rockets. On this Friday, usually the busiest shopping day of the week, the streets are quiet, the shopping mall almost deserted.
"Everyone's terrified," says Siham Tarabin, 33, Mr. Tarabin's wife. "This is the first time Beersheva has ever been hit by rockets." Ms. Tarabin, who works in a large hardware store, says she's lost her appetite since the rockets first reached them. (One landed less than a kilometre away.) She gets through a pack of Parliament cigarettes twice as fast as she used to.
Four Katyusha rockets hit Beersheva yesterday; the sirens that announced their imminent arrival woke both families at about 5 a.m. No one was injured in the four separate attacks, but each time the siren wailed, the couples joined their children in the rocket-proof shelter with which each apartment is outfitted. The three young Suisse children and the three Tarabin kids have all slept in their family shelters every night since this conflict began two weeks ago.
There's been no school, and both families insist their children not go outside alone. "They're allowed to play with friends in the building," says Noga Suisse, 44, Mr. Suisse's wife. "And they know they have to rush into the nearest shelter whenever they hear the siren."
The eight-storey building, with two apartments per floor, has slightly more Jewish families than Arab, but no one has counted them, both families say, surprised even to be asked about it.
Around town, they say, no one makes a big deal about the different groups. "I was on the bus earlier this week when the siren sounded," says Ms. Suisse, a cashier at a big supermarket. "The bus pulled up and we all ran into the same shelter, Arab and Jew. It's always like that."
All four parents said they hate seeing the killing that is shown taking place in Gaza. "When I see the dead children, I just want to hug my own children," Ms. Suisse says.
"But we all think the government is doing the right thing," Mr. Tarabin says.
It wasn't originally planned that Beersheva, now Israel's sixth-largest city, was going to be in Israel at all. The city had been the home of Abraham and other Jewish patriarchs, but was inhabited almost entirely by Arabs, including many Bedouin such as the Tarabin tribe, in the first half of the 20th century. The 1947 United Nations partition plan placed it on the map of a prospective Arab state; Egypt quickly occupied it and used it as a military headquarters when war broke out in 1948. A year later, however, Israeli forces had driven Egypt back, and Beersheva has been Israeli ever since. Its population has a Jewish majority now, but relations between the races have always been good.
The famous old-style Beersheva market reflects the joint heritage. The outdoor food stalls are manned by a mishmash of Jews and Arabs, all shouting out the great bargains and quality they have on offer.
This day, however, there are few people to take up the offers.
"No one's selling anything," says a Jewish vendor named Yaish, interrupting his visit with his Arab neighbour. "We're just watching the fruit and vegetables." It's been this way for almost two weeks, he says.
Where's the shelter he runs to when the sirens wail? "I stay here," he says, indignantly. "All of us do. And we all have the same God," he emphasizes. "We trust in him."
Mr. Tarabin does. He's a Sufi, a branch of Islam that preaches non-violence. Yet he ended up a border policeman, a tough assignment in which he must deal with both Palestinian and Jewish confrontations.
"I'm a Muslim Arab, but also an Israeli," he slowly explains. "I live in this state and I want to help protect it. A policeman fights crime and chaos. That's my job."
Mr. Suisse, a chef at a large hotel on the Dead Sea, beams when he hears his friend talk like this. "I am proud of Lawrence for the service he gives to this country."
ORIGINAL LINK:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... EERSHEVA10
see, even the religious Arabs living in Israel think Israel is doing the right thing. dont really know what to add to this...
