A bunch of criminal, racist ignoramuses

No city in the world can compare to Jerusalem. But the drive to Jerusalem, for many of us, also means stopping at Abu Ghosh along the way. Perhaps it is because of this that I was thrilled when I was invited by the Foreign Ministry to participate in a month-long course for consulate heads in Jerusalem in June 2004, prior to being sent to an Arab capital. The course came with a special bonus: a visit to my friends Yaakov and Moussa Ibrahim from the Mifgash Hakaravan restaurant in Abu Ghosh on my way back home to Tel Aviv every day.

At the Foreign Ministry I studied theory. In the evenings, with Yaakov and Moussa, I received lessons in how to apply those theories. These were instructive lessons on Jewish-Arab coexistence. I wasn't able to compete with Yaakov and Moussa over who makes the better hummus, but to my surprise they also gave me a fight over who was more proud to be an Israeli.

I felt a true sense of disgust following the news of the price-tag attack in Abu Ghosh on Tuesday. Tires on 28 cars were slashed and despicable slogans were spray-painted on walls in the place where, during the 1948 War of Independence, residents helped Jewish fighters. Yusuf and Abed Abu Ghosh even joined the Lehi (Stern Gang) fighters.

This essentially teaches us that aside from their criminality and racism, these vandals are also a bunch of ignoramuses.

Even if Abu Ghosh was not the only Arab village in the Jerusalem corridor to aid us in our war for independence, we would still feel disgusted. Not just for their sake, but for ours. These types of acts are an affront to Jewish values, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded us yesterday. He is right. Morality, Judaism, being Israeli, Jewish law, they all come together to reject these acts.

The time has come for the price-tag perpetrators to be stopped. We must understand that beyond the damaged tires, walls, homes, olive trees, churches and monasteries, this gang of thugs also damage the state's good name.

In an era of media warfare these acts have significance and come at a cost. If only just for this they deserve the title of terrorists. In the meantime, the cabinet is calling them an "unlawful association."

I called my friend Moussa yesterday. To be honest, I was a little ashamed. I wanted to ask for forgiveness. He was at ease.

"It doesn't have any effect on anything," he told me. "The Jews and Arabs share a relationship of love, kinship, coexistence and neighborliness. This is how it has been and this is how it will stay."

And the slogans saying "Arabs out" don't disrupt this? I asked. They can't be detrimental to the younger generation?

"We're talking about a minority within the minority. They don't represent the Jewish people at all," he answered.

Moussa, who in his youth studied at a Jewish day school, said that residents of the village do not want to make a ruckus over what happened. A ruckus would give the price-tag attackers publicity. For those who seek to harm Israel's good name -- price-tag activists are a type of partner in crime.

Those who committed these heinous acts won't succeed in harming the wonderful fabric of coexistence in Abu Ghosh. The only thing they have managed to do is cause us to leave Abu Ghosh with a bitter taste in our mouths. And that really is an almost impossible thing to do.

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