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The conversation between a Jewish holocaust survivor and a young Arab man attending Hebrew University. This took place in the middle of the intifada, in 2002 on a beach outside of Herzliya, Israel. I haven't looked at this piece for a few years, but I remembered it today while thinking about the animosities present in this region, and whether any prospects for peace in the near future exist.
For a while he looked at me perturbed. " We all make mistakes. But Islam with all its faults is a thousand times more preferable to the abomination that is the West." He finally said quietly. Then he gave me a fierce look and said: "If you had said in any Arabcountry about Islam, what you have just said to me, you would be a dead man!"
"I am sure I would. And if you had said in any Arab country denouncingtheir corrupt regimes the way you are denouncing Israel, you would be adead man too. Yet, here you are, studying at the Hebrew University inJerusalem, allowing yourself openly to speak of subversion and treasonagainst the State of Israel, without any fear of being arrested, let alonebeing killed for it. Doesn't it say something to you?"
"Yes, it says that you are weak, and that weakness will be your undoing."he said seriously."
Isn't there a way our two nations could ever come to terms and make peace?"
Again he gave me that serious look. " Yes, there is a way. We are not like the Nazis who gave you no other choice but death. We give you the chance to convert to Islam, then you will become a part of us and our people willlive in peace.
"For a while we stood in silence looking at the sea.
(This article was widely distributed in 2002 after it was first published. At the top of the page that is linked there is a letter of introduction from the author of the article. To get to the article itself you will have to scroll down a little bit)
