On and off for over a year now, our home on the outskirts of Jerusalem has been subject to extensive reconstruction. The kind that always leaves behind a little something that has not yet been completed and needs to be done.

The contractor, a blue-eyed, pure-bred Israeli, seems to have been involved in some pretty interesting stuff during his military service. One guy, a blond giant, came from the former Rhodesia. Another, a Greek, is here because he fell in love with an Israeli girl and wants to be converted so he can gain citizenship. An IT engineer by profession, he is doing this job until his papers come through. His name is Adonis. However, since “Adoni” in Hebrew means “Sir,” everyone calls him that.

The fourth member of the crew is a Palestinian Arab, let’s call him Ahmed. How often did all of us not share a simple lunch made up of Pita bread, humus, fried chips, an “Arab” vegetable salad, and a Coke! Here it is about Ahmed I want to write.

Ahmed is a big, white-bearded, very dignified, man perhaps fifty years of age. He always wears a white galabia and regularly says his prayers. By and by we learnt that he has five daughters, all of them married, and two young sons. He himself, he says, liked studying and used to be a good student; however his father pulled him out of school so he could help put bread on the family table. That is how he became a laborer, a fact he rather regrets. Unfortunately his teenage sons are more interested in living it up than in studying. They dress in fashionable shirts and jeans and go about with elaborate hairdos. However, he is confronting them and hopes that they will end up by attending a university, find good jobs, and won’t have to work as hard as he does.

The other day I happened to overhear a conversation he had with Dvora, my wife. Perhaps I should add that Dvora is the type who can make even a stone talk. A great gift, that.

Ahmed: I really do not understand why those people in Gaza are launching their rockets at Israel.

Dvora: I think it is because they have difficulty controlling their own population. They want to draw attention away from their own failures.
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Ahmed: I agree with you there. I think Netanyahu is a good prime minister and a good man. Look at how much Qatari money he got for Gaza! Yet they still go on shooting. It is all because of those bloody Iranians. They keep stirring the pot.

Dvora: I agree that Netanyahu is bright and even that he is a good prime minister. But not that he is a good man. His real problem is that he does not want a Palestinian State.

Ahmed: Me neither! Why? Because our leaders, unlike yours, steal whatever they can lay their hands on in order to feed their clans. And not just here in Palestine. That is how it works throughout the Arab world. That is why they always stay poor and exploited. Working for you, I feel respected. Back at home I have to pay baksheesh [a bribe]. Or else nothing happens. With you Jews things are different. Look at Netanyahu who has been buying himself cigars at the state’s expense and is now being put on trial. We Arabs do not have such laws.

Dvora: Before I was able to start rebuilding this house in which you have been working I had to obtain a zillion permits. One from the Department of Antiquities which had to confirm that the job would not disturb any archaeological remains. Next, the Israel Land Administration had to give its blessing. And the Firefighting Authority. And any number of other organizations. And our neighbors. And the engineer and the architect and safety expert I was obliged to hire. About the only people whose consent I did not need were the rabbis! All this, simply to add an elevator that would enable me, an elderly woman who has some difficulty walking, to reach each of our three floors (the cellar included) as well as the street. Never mind that the company that built and installed the elevator already has all the necessary permits to go on with the job. Regulations must be obeyed. Just getting everyone to sign took me eighteen months. To say nothing of the sum I had to pay, which might well be larger than your bribe. This is just the way a modern state operates. Everyone controls and supervises everyone else. Cover your ass, is what we call it.

Ahmed: Really? You don’t say! With us, as soon as you have paid your baksheesh you can start building. No one cares.

I hear them both laugh.