By Linda Sax Snaid
SAN DIEGO — While my husband looked for snacks recently in an airport lounge in Atlanta, a smiling gentleman took the seat opposite me. He was on layover from Dubai, returning from a visit with one of his children. Both he and his children were educated at elite European universities. He was a professor in South Carolina and had a degree in mathematics. He spoke freely. My Mediterranean look must have put him at ease. Exhausted after a marathon flight from South Africa, I mostly listened.
Mustafa’s father had moved his young family to America from Palestine. “Jews run America,” dissolved my fatigue. I asked if Warren Buffet or Bill Gates were Jewish. My heart raced. He followed with what he apparently thought self-evident, “Jews are clever and successful.”
My husband returned, listening while working on his computer. Mustafa only identified himself as a Palestinian although he mentioned a predecessor who had worked as an official in the Egyptian government. One disparaging remark about Israel followed another. He lamented about a grandfather who bought land in the 1930’s for $8,000. Later the family faced a dispute over the land. I asked if the family sought justice and he admitted an Israeli court ruled in their favor.
Knowing that Palestinian Arabs are denied citizenship in Arab countries I asked if a court in any Arab country would have done likewise. He acknowledged he could not expect such justice from an Arab country and then offered, “I have Jewish friends and some Jews in Israel are good people.”
The patronizing was short lived. “Settlers are subhuman,” crossed his lips with the confidence of a professor relating a mathematical formula to his students.
I told him that I believe, like all Christians and Jews do, that human beings are made in G-d’s image and that no people are “subhuman.” I asked if he thought that way because the Qu’ran refers to non-believers in Islam as pigs and monkeys. He professed that he was not a very knowledgeable Muslim. He said, with no sense of hypocricy, “to me being a good Muslim means treating other people the way I would want to be treated.”
Mustafa continued; “Settlers destroy olive trees.” I told him that I understood that to be a rare occurrence. The professor assured me that destroying an olive tree was equal to taking a human life. Shocked, I asked for clarification three times. He held steady to a moral code that equates trees and people.
My soul cringed. Before me was the embodiment of a highly successful Palestinian Arab who denied any significant knowledge of Islam and yet was immersed in the contempt that permeates jihad. He oozed with a conviction that was as real as his irrational and bigoted anti-Israel foundation. I shuddered realizing he taught in America.
He then mentioned that Jews had stolen land from Palestinians. My husband no longer remained silent. Leon acknowledged he was Jewish. He described his journey from South Africa in 1967 to help defend the Jewish state against Arab neighbors who vowed to destroy it. Mustafa commented “very clever” on Israel’s win for survival.
Leon, a lawyer with profound history knowledge that spans continents, informed Mustafa of the worldwide support of the Jewish National Fund in the purchase of land since the 1800’s when the area was described as desolate by all visitors. The professor scoffed and again reminded us of American propaganda.
His defense now turned to Noam Chomsky as an example of a Jew who agreed with him. Revealingly, the American he associates with is a Jew, who has nothing to do with Judaism, hates America, hates Israel and works to promote their detractors. Mustafa then claimed to want “genuine peace” and advised ominously that was in Israel’s best interest.
I was deflated as he left to catch a plane. I had hoped that educated Palestinians would eventually be a source of honesty, healing and advancement to their population. The chill of reality shook me to the core.
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Snaid is a freelance writer who has retired from a career in underwater defense technology.