Telling the Honest Truth in Be’er Sheva

It began with yelling.
“You are racists! You are occupiers!” “You shoot everyone!”
The guy looked very Israeli. He was not Jewish. An Arab or Bedouin.
Who do you mean when you say, “you”? I asked him.
“You! You!” he shouted at me.
“What about me?” I asked. “Tell me what is bothering you.”
“Ummm… You don’t speak respectfully!” he yelled.
“Can you give an example?”
“10 examples!”
“One is enough…”
Of course, I didn’t get any examples. He was just yelling, so I began my very successful stroll through the Be’er Sheva marketplace, meeting many tried and true Likudniks who will be voting Zehut next time around.
When I returned to our Zehut stand, the yelling was even louder.
“I am the only person who respects you,” I turned to him.
Silence.
“Do you know how I respect you?”
“Because I am the only person telling you the truth. Do you want to hear the truth?”
“Yes.”
“The truth is that this entire Land, every place that you step, from Be’er Sheva to Gaza, from Tel Aviv to Hebron – the entire Land – belongs to the Jews exclusively and not to any other nation. This is the Land of Israel, not the land of Ismail. If you accept that, you are invited to stay with us, with all the human rights that you would never get in an Arab state. But if you are not willing to accept that, you will ultimately be thrown out of here.”
“And who will throw me out?”
“I will.”
“I don’t agree with one word of what you said,” he said to me. “But I respect you.”
“Fine”.
“Okay, time for a selfie”.