c. 2006 Religion News Service

MAJD AL-KRUM, Israel _ When the shriek pierced the tranquillity of this mountainside Israeli Arab village a week ago (July 9-15), Hanza Farhat mistook it for the sound of a distressed airplane. Then the Hezbollah rocket crashed into the roof opposite the balcony where she was minding her young daughters.

Now, Farhat says, her 4-year-old, Haya, won’t leave her side.

“I’m taking relaxation pills,” Farhat said.

Israel was reminded yesterday that its Arab citizens are just as vulnerable as the Jewish majority in the week-old war, when a rocket that landed in the city of Nazareth claimed two Arab children _ Rabiyeh Abed Taluzi,3, and his older brother Mahmoud, 7.

But unlike the overwhelming support for the war among their Jewish countrymen, there is widespread criticism of the government from Israeli Arabs who feel caught in the middle.

Arabs make up a fifth of Israel’s population, but they represent half the residents in the northern part of the country where Hezbollah has lobbed Katushya rockets. Residents of Majd al-Krum say that perhaps seven rockets landed in their village of 13,000 last week, injuring one person and damaging houses as well as the cemetery.

“Both sides are guilty, Israel and Hezbollah,” said Farhan Farhat, Hanza’s father-in-law, who heard the nearby rocket explosion just after sitting down to watch the 3 p.m. newscast on the Al Jazeera satellite channel. “They should come down from the tree and sit together. It’s those of us who are down on the ground who are paying.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Israel’s Arab minority is among the country’s most dovish constituencies, sympathizing with Palestinian brethren on the West Bank and in Gaza and watching news coverage on Arabic channels that is highly critical of Israel. But they are also fiercely protective of their status as Israeli citizens and are quick to dismiss any suggestions, made routinely by Israeli Jews, of dual loyalty.

“Screw the Lebanese, screw the Syrians and screw Hezbollah. Do they send me money?” said Hassan Sirhan, the owner of a kitchen ceramic tile workshop in Majd al-Krum. “These rockets don’t know the difference between Jews or Arabs.”

But like Farhat, he says Israel erred when it chose military might over negotiations in responding to the Hezbollah kidnapping of two soldiers eight days ago.

By failing to make peace with its Arab neighbors, Israel has contributed to the bitterness in Lebanon on which Hezbollah feeds, Sirhan said.

“Doesn’t Israel hold prisoners as well? They should talk. All we want is peace,” he said. “My wife isn’t sleeping at night. Today there was a siren at 6 a.m. and my kids came into bed with me crying. Isn’t that terrorism?”

The attacks on northern Israel may also have exposed how the country’s Arab citizens can be shortchanged when it comes to public services.

One week after the Majd al-Krum strike, villagers are still waiting for the government to inspect the damage and estimate how much compensation they are due. The government’s tax assessors have been arriving on the scene immediately following rocket attacks in Jewish cities, according to Israel’s Channel 2 television news.

And none of the Arab cities in the north seem to be hooked up to the public siren system that gives residents critical seconds to look for cover before the rockets crash down.

“They only give you a siren after you get hit,” said Farhan Farhat.

(Joshua Mitnick writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

DSB END MITNICKEditors: A version of this story is also being transmitted today by Newhouse News Service.

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