I really didn’t want to write a piece for First of the Month about Arabs and Jews.  Every article I’ve read talks about the terrible discrimination -even hatred – and I am burnt out on hatred and stereotypes.  I’d asked Hillel Shenker what he felt about the change in relations between Arabs and Jews and he listed the organizations working for cooperation, and hoe there’s less in some organizations and more in others.  I kept mulling over what I knew.  First, I went to see if I had mail at the university and I looked in on the lecture hall where I used to teach.  The class was full – but from the back it appeared that they were mostly women, and half of them were wearing hijabs.  So much for academic discrimination.  Then, having found only dead flies in my mailbox, I decided I would forget about working in my office and go do some chores. The first 2 places on my list today were the pharmacy and the supermarket.  Yes, as I often tell you, the pharmacists speak Arabic and we are happy to let them take our health in their hands.  What does this tell you?

My next stop was the supermarket, where the cashiers were all women, all with hijabs.  Do we worry about our food being poisoned on the counter, or examine the itemized receipts to see if there were mistakes?  I didn’t notice anyone who did anything more than chat with the cashiers.