The Haj - Leon Uris [28]
‘But suppose the Mufti’s men did it. Should that be a reason to cut your water off? We don’t believe in punishing an entire village for something you did not do.’
‘Aha!’ Ibrahim said. ‘That proves you are weak and that will be your downfall. You are crazy to extend us a mercy that you will never receive in return.’
‘The Jews have asked for mercy a million times in a hundred lands. How can we now deny mercy to others who ask it from us?’
‘Because this is not a land of mercy. Magnanimity has no part in our world. Sooner or later you will have to play politics, make alliances, secret agreements, arm one tribe against another. You will start thinking more and more like us. Jewish ideals will not work here. You Jews have come in and destroyed a system of order we created out of the desert. Perhaps the bazaar looks disorganized to you, but it works for us. Perhaps Islam looks fanatical to you, but it provides us with the means to survive the harshness of this life and prepare us for a better life hereafter.’
‘It need not be that life under Islam is meaningless on this earth and that you are only here for the purpose of waiting to die. Could it be, Haj Ibrahim, you use Islam as an excuse for your failures, an excuse to quietly accept tyranny, an excuse for not using sweat and ingenuity to make something out of this land.’
‘Come now, Gideon. What will happen when my poor people learn to read and write. They will begin to want things impossible for them to have. You get all the money you want from the world Jews. What will Fawzi Kabir give us without making a deal for himself? No, Gideon, no. The Jews are breaking down a way of life we are conditioned to. Don’t you see ... every time the outsider comes here he brings with him ways we cannot cope with.’
‘That’s the point, Ibrahim. Islam cannot hide from the world any longer. With the Jews here, we can give you a window to a world you can’t avoid.’
Ibrahim shook his head. ‘It has always been trouble when outsiders come here and tell us how to live. First the Crusaders, then the Turks, then the British, then the French ... everyone telling us our ways are no good and we must change.’
‘You’re wrong about one thing. The Jews belong here. We come from the same father. We are both sons of Abraham. There must be a place in our father’s house for us. One small room is all we ask.’
‘Look at the color of your eyes, Gideon. You are a stranger from a strange place.’
There have always been Jews and Arabs in Palestine and there always will be. We got our blue eyes wandering in a hostile world, and some of us need to come home.’
‘And we are being asked to pay for the crimes of the Christians against you,’ Ibrahim said.
‘Pay? It’s not your land, Ibrahim. You’ve given up on it long ago. You’ve neither fought for it, nor worked for it, nor ever called it a country of its own.’
‘You are trying to create a Palestine in your own image. You are pushing us into a world we do not know. We must have something we understand, something we can contend with. You are confusing us,’ Ibrahim said.
‘Why don’t you make a small start, like sending some of your children to our clinic? They don’t have to die of the stomach or chest pains and they don’t have to go through life blind from trichoma.’
For the first time Ibrahim became annoyed and restless to end their meeting. ‘It is Allah’s will that the weak among us be weeded out.’ He walked to where his horse grazed and took its reins. Gideon stood and sighed.
‘We have a strong new generator in the kibbutz—’
‘No,’ Ibrahim interrupted, ‘we do not want your electricity.’
‘What I had in mind was running a single wire over to your café. In that way, a radio can be installed.’
‘Oh, Gideon, you know how to tempt me. A radio ... you know very well that it would make me only slightly