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Dinner with Druse leader Zeidan Atashi and his daughter Najwa Mansour

They described the ways of the Druse [110, 000 in Israel; 1 million in Syria and .5 million in Lebanon]

As a breakaway group from Islam in 16th Century, they have known persecution and tend to live in inaccessible hill country. One is born into the Druse religion. One cannot convert to it or leave it.

• Druse is a monotheistic religion.
• The Druse soul is born eternally. No entering or leaving the faith except through birth.
• We have no aspiration to establish a Druse StateIsrael is a Jewish state.
• Everyone is free to live in the state. We constitute a major minority in the state, though not everyone in the democracy is equal.
• If the Muslim minority, anywhere in the world, exceeds 20% it will challenge the majority.
• There has been no genuine peace in this part of the Middle East for the past 1500 years – between religions or nationalities. I don’t expect peace into the future either.

Having opted to be citizens of a given country, they give total allegiance to that country. Hence they are extremely loyal to Israel. They would be negative to Palestine.

Najwa talked of the struggles for a Druse woman to find independence. To be able to live with independence, she must opt to be a secular rather than a religious Druse. However that can change at any time in either direction.

Part way through the dinner Zeidan and Najwa left and Carmit Meltzer? joined us. She lost her husband Aviel and children Anat and Ofer in a suicide bombing which took place in an Arab restaurant in Haifa as they celebrated the feast of Passover.

This was the first time that she spoke openly about the massacre. It was obviously very difficult for her and we were touched by her willingness to entrust this pain to a group of strangers.

It was very moving. She responded to a question by saying that she hated the people who had done this. But she wanted the coexistence of Arab and Jew to continue. She spoke of how her children’s friends of both races and faiths continue to visit and support her. She wants to be an ongoing part of their lives