Fear

I headed to Tel Aviv to meet some friends. As I prepared to leave Kfar Gaza, again even in broad daylight, Gaza loomed threateningly close. It struck me as odd that I should feel uneasy around an Arab settlement. I wondered if living in Israel and hearing all the anti-Arab tirades had effected me without my knowledge. No. After living in Cairo and traveling around parts of the Middle East, I maintain that at heart, the Arabs are a warm and generous people. It is a rather uncomfortable situation for them, as literacy rates are purposely left high and much of the Middle East remains in a state of dilapidation and antiquity. The leaders of the Middle East play on the state of desperation that hey have kept their people under and manipulate them into religious and political submission; flexing their muscles to use the people as a weapon (sometimes against each other) when and how they please. I am not afraid of Arabs. No. My nerves were a product of survival instinct. In the rockets and mortar fired from Gaza, amidst their frustration and despair, there is no distinction between friend and foe. There is only death.