Posted on 03/24/2009 5:11:57 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Beit Jan, Israel: Yamin Zeidan once proudly worked as an Israeli jailer, locking up the country's most notorious Arab prisoners - until he performed an ideological somersault and became their lawyer.
Zeidan's two brothers were Israeli army soldiers killed in the line of duty, including one shot dead by Hezbollah, the Lebanese fighter group which last year handed over two dead Israeli soldiers in exchange for Zeidan's highest profile client - Samir Kantar.
Zeidan is an Israeli Druse - an Arabic-speaking sect that serves in Israel's army and has traditionally been fiercely loyal to the Jewish state but increasingly finds itself marginalised and identifying with the mainstream Arab minority.
The criticism remains muted, and the vast majority of Druse, including Zeidan, say they want equality with Jewish citizens, not a break from Israel. However, the loss of confidence raises a troubling question: If the Jewish state cannot win the hearts of its most loyal minority, will any of Israel's non-Jews ever feel they belong?
Zeidan, like his two older brothers and almost all other Druse males of his age, planned to join the Israeli army when he turned 18. However, three months before he was to be drafted in 1996, a Hezbollah sniper killed his 22-year-old brother Saleh. His only other brother, Fuad, was killed by a Palestinian fighter in the West Bank years earlier.
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It is not about equality. Druze are fully equal, except that they are given affirmative action. This Arab simple decided that he was an Arab first and to throw his support to the Islamists who would oppress him as a member of a heterodox sect.
No kidding. There is a moral vacuum in this man.
"That was a historic meeting for me. One day I was Samir Kantar's jailer. The next, I was his lawyer," Zeidan said.
Why?
Both of his brothers were killed by these guys. His new client is the worst of the worst. He finds himself able to pass moral judgement on Israelis, who struggle to be moral and just, and takes the side of not merely Israel's arab enemies, but a guy who would crush a little girl's head to make a point. The guy is lost.
I just don’t see Druzes going over to the dark side. During the last Lebanon war a couple of years ago the Druze battalion was not only thoroughly reliable but in fact penetrated deeper into Lebanon than any other unit in the Israel Army. There is even some talk in Israel of upgrading the Druze battalion to a special force unit. I just can’t see a few complaints, which might or might not be true, adding up to much. This looks to me like just another example of anti-Israel bias in the press.
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