Newspaper Page Text
Peace with the Arabs
In Fantasy of Arab Mind
Silence May Be Best Way
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
Henry Montor of the Israel Bond
Organization, returning from Israel,
advises the friends of Israel not to
worry too much about peace with
the Arabs. In fact, he is of the
opinion that the less talk there is
of peace with the Arabs the sooner
it may come.
It all brought back to mind a
story about peace that goes back to
Palestine some 16 years ago, when
I visited Palestine. The story was
told to me by a Jewish farmer at
Rishon — an old timer, whose peo
ple had come to Palestine among
the earliest pioneers.
This Jewish planter had an Arab
working for him. I don't pretend to
remember his name. We will call
him Ahmed. He got along quite
well. He appeared to be a little
more of a schemer than most. The
Arabs are Semites as are the Jews
and the Jews have a reputation for
great cunning but anyone who real
ly knows the Arabs knows that we
are the merest of amateurs in that
respect compared to the Arabs.
What goes on in the back of an
Arab’s mind you really never know.
What he says and what he thinks
are entirely in different compart
ments. You go to an Arab on a
business errand. He refuses to talk
business with you. He invites you
to have coffee with him. You finish
your demitasse and he brings you
another and another. It will prob
ably be three hours later before he
lets you talk about the mundane
matter which brought you. He
overwhelms you with his hospital
ity. but when he finally gets down
to talking business, he will drive a
hard bargain.
But all of this is by way of pa
renthesis — not so much to explain
Ahmed personally as his race. But
Ahmed W'as a true man of his race.
As I was saying, Ahmed worked
for this Jewish farmer quite pleas
antly, but one day, the Bedouin in
him asserted itself and “he folded
his tent,” and “silently stole away.”
And on another bright morning,
several months later, w'ho comes
galloping up to the homestead of
the old Jewish farmer in Rishon?
You are right. It was not Paul
Revere. It was Ahmed. Yes, sir, he
was riding on a fine w r hite horse —
the surest sign of prosperity. Ahmed
seemed to have struck oil, figura
tively at least. The fact that Ahmed
had a fine white horse showed that
he was getting closer to the upper
brackets or maybe they call it the
upper shish-kebab.
The Jewish farmer and Ahmed
got to talking and the farmer
learned that Ahmed was not quite
as prosperous as he looked. He had
in fact come to borrow 20 pounds
of the Jewish farmer, but it
wouldn’t be long, he assured the
Jewish planter, before he would
repay him.
What did he need the money for?
The chance had come to him to
buy a very young wife. He was a
little tired of his present wife. The
father of the young girl he was now
interested in had originally de
manded 30 pounds but he had got
the father down to 20 pounds. He
positively would not go any lower.
The new wife, he thought, would
go well with the new horse.
Where did Ahmed get that fine
white horse? asked the Jewish
farmer.
Allah had been good to him.
Ahmed frankly admitted that he
had stolen the horse, but he reas
sured the Jewish farmer. It was
perfectly safe. He had stolen it
from the other end of the country
and the owners could not trace it.
To remove any qualms about the
repayment of the 20 pounds asked,
Ahmed pointed out that he was now
in a business which offered the
most lucrative of returns.
At that time, the Huranis were
flocking into Palestine in great
numbers attracted by the jobs cre
ated by the Jewish enterprises. (We
tend to forget that much of the
Arab population in Palestine was of
as recent an immigration as the
Jewish, coming to Palestine be
cause of the Jews.)
The Huranis were always fighting
with another and Ahmed had dis
covered that many of the Huranis
were willing to pay him for ad
justing their feuds. He had a knack
in that direction. The saying
“Blessed are the peacemakers” was
true. He had found peacemaking a
fine business. He just hoped the
Huranis would keep on fighting, so
he would have more orders to make
peace.
The Levantine is a devious per
son. I think Mr. Montor may be
right. What goes on in the Arab
mind when you talk peace with
him, you can never know. His is a
fantastic world. He buys a wife
like a horse and when you talk v/ith
him about peace you have got to
watch your horse.
(Copyright 1954, JTA, Inc.)
Headquarters in the Situtli
for SOU IS I) ADVICE
and PROMPT, EFFICIENT SERVICE
REAL ESTATE INSURANCE
BONDING MORTGAGE LOANS
" ,e ENGEL Companies
1921 First Avenue, North BIRMINGHAM, ALA. 7-0252
SEE
FIRST FEDERAL FIRST!
Put your IDLE FUNDS to work at
FIRST FEDERAL - - - Each account fully insured
to $10,000.00 - - - Earn a 3% dividend, com
pounded semi-annually.
FIRST FEDERAL
SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION
116 No. 21st Street - BIRMINGHAM, ALA.
Southern Natural
Gas Company
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
The Southern Israelite
(7)