Sayed Kashua / I'm a scared Arab in Israel

[azurnoir]

"Tell us, Daddy," they asked occasionally, pointing to a photograph of one of the candidates, "is that one of the good guys?" "No," I replied, sometimes without looking to see who they were asking about. "Daddy, Daddy," my daughter said this week, "I asked you about all the candidates in the pictures and you said they are all bad." "We will vote for Superman," her little brother said, raising a hand in the air, making whooshing flying noises like his favorite superhero. "Superman can beat Batman, right, Daddy?" "They're both good," I replied for the millionth time, "both Superman and Batman. There is no reason for them to fight." "Soon," I scolded them again and tried to concentrate on my cup of black coffee and the glass of water on my desk.
I had been positive I would be able to sleep late, and did not expect two little Arabs to jump on me at 7 in the morning - certainly not because of elections for the Israeli Knesset. I had to get over a really serious hangover before I went out. I got really pissed and got home close to three in the morning.

I remember being scared. Very scared. I remember I was having a conversation with a friend from Haifa who told me about his feeling that something had changed in the city. He talked about a different look he had started to see in the eyes of some people. A look of desire for revenge, he described it. I told him he was wrong and accused him of unnecessary paranoia, especially in an attempt to ally the fears I have. Fears that more than ever before, at least as far as I remember, there is a feeling that it's legitimate to harass Arabs.

The same sort of feeling inundated me in the first days of the second intifada, but then it seemed to be totally distorted, because the 13 dead, at the hands of the police, seemed to be a price that satisfied Israeli public opinion. At that time the government did its work, whereas now, after the war in Gaza, after the war in Lebanon, the police - limited perhaps after the Or Commission - did not slake the public's thirst for revenge, and the feeling is that the time has come to do it with our own hands.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063713.html

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. If NuttyYahoo becomes PM, with a coalition of those even crazier than he is

it will be scary for a lot of people. Israeli Arabs....neighboring countries....Iran....and even Jews who aren't crazy warmongers like the Likud and other extremists. :evilfrown:

[azurnoir]

2. I do not blame Israeli Arabs for being scared

the fact that Liebermans party got as many seats as it did is frightening