More on Arabs and a political snippet

There are Arabs eveywhere. In the poor neighbourhoods, on trendy Ben Gurion street, in the malls, everywhere. In Dunk Pub, (I had the goose/pork burger, absolutely incredible) Josh and I met two students at the Technion. One was born in East Jerusalem to an Arab father and "Russian" mother (I'm assuming he meant ethnically Jewish). He didn't serve in the army, "they didn't want him and he didn't want them." The other guy was a Catholic Arab. According to him, of Israel's million Arabs, 150,000 are Christian and 100,000 of those are Catholic. The number could be way off, but it is interesting. The Arabs I meet are pork-eating Christians, that's for sure.

They were nice guys, recommending all the best Schwarma places (apparently some place called Emile is the best) but we had a brief political moment when Josh said he thought the IDF was man for man stronger than the US military. These guys clearly had no love for the IDF, but it was the Jewish bartender, Alex, who piped in with "The problem with he IDF is that is kills people that it shouldn't." To which I responded, "Can you name an army that doesn't do that?" He said, "You're right." Then he thought some more and said, "Armies who aren't at war." I didn't bother responding, as our conversation continued amicably on a different topic.

Also, at the bar I heaerd a Dubliners version of "I'm A Rover." I have a Great Big Sea version. I told them I would bring them some Great Big Sea to play in the bar. That can be my contribution to Israel.