• • • • • • • • • • • Kidz Kloz The Time Shop Objects of Art C.D. Warehouse T.CB.Y. Yogurt Executive Entre' Travelers World Golden Phoenix Paparazzi Outback Steakhouse Antwerp Jewelers Interiors by Colony D'Alleva Salon Footloose Weisman Cleaners Raphael Salon Callanetics Studio by Maureen • LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT S • • ■ Orchard Lake Rd. North of Maple • • • • • • • • ■ West Bloomfield • • • Applegate Square Northwestern Highway, Southfield 355-9420 BIRMINGHAM LOCATION ONLY ENTIRE STORE 40 - 70 % OFF Now through the Holidays • Are Israelis Anti-Arab Racists? Two surveys find evidence of racist hatred of Arabs, but some Israelis say this is an inevitabl reaction to Arab hatred of Israel. OPEN SUNDAYS NOON to 4 PM THRU THE HOLIDAYS • • • • • • • • • • * • • • hortly after I im- migrated to Israel in 1985, cousins of mine, a married couple, took me on a day trip through the north. They were educated, middle-class people in their mid-30s, with two young daughters. They were good people— friendly, generous and obviously loving parents. We drove into the Arab city of Nazareth and parked the car in an alley. I flung open my door to get out — I tend to throw open car doors quite forcefully — just as an Arab man was passing close by. The door hit him right in the ribs. He doubled over and staggered to the car parked in front of us, and leaned over the hood holding his side. I went over to him and asked, "Are you all right?" He didn't budge, or say anything. I said, "I'm sorry; it was an accident; I didn't see you," and he still didn't respond. After a few more seconds, the man finally straightened up, gestured that he was okay, smiled as best he could — as if to say he realized I hadn't meant to hurt him — and went on his way. The man appeared about 50, but an old 50; un- shaven, shabbily dressed, a meek man who looked like he hadn't had an easy life. I went back to my cousins' car, feeling lousy. My cousins were smiling. "Why didn't you kill him?" asked the husband. "What are you upset about? We were laughing," said the wife. I didn't say anything; I'm not proud to admit that. I tell this story because there is a controversy in Israel now over whether an- ti-Arab racism is a problem among the Jews here. On Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, Avrum Burg, a dovish Laborite and chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, released the results of poll he commissioned, which he said showed that "there is racism and xenophobia in Israel similar to what is go- ing on in Germany and France." Of 501 adult Israeli Jews questioned in the poll, 39 percent were in favor of vig- ilante-style violence against Arabs in response to Arab terror, and 28 percent" favored pressuring Arabs t leave the country. Mr. Burg was criticized sharply by professional pollsters for coming to such an inflammatory conclusion on the basis of what war- called very thin evidence The poll wasn't scientific, they said, merely a few ques- tions tacked on, at Mr. Burg's request, to another opinion survey. Moreover, Dori Shadmon, head of Telseker, which con- ducted the poll, said th unlike Mr. Burg, he saw th glass as mostly full, rather than mostly empty. "In my opinion, there is evidence in 40 percent of Israeli Jewish high school students told pollsters they hate all or most Arabs. this poll of the existence of a solid majority for democ racy." Right-wing voices strongly attacked Mr. Burg. Knesset members, mainly from the Likud and National Re- ligious Party (NRP), calle him a "self-hating Jew" wh dared compare his own peo- ple to skinheads, and an "extreme leftist" who made common cause with Arab propagandists. The right-wing argumen was essentially that there i no racism among Israeli Jews. What there is, they said, is understandable Jew- ish hostility toward Arabs after having lived with their terror and war for so long.