Fuaz the carpenter

Just had a lovely cupboard made by Fuaz, a Muslim carpenter who lives in a villa in a Druze village very near here. We had a nice chat as he talked about this and that. It appears that he might have to go into hospital and I asked him if he was satisfied with the Israel medical service. He is  He said that he felt that Arabs were treated even better than the Jewish community by the various Israeli health funds: he himself is in Leumit http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/brief/Health.html  and he also asked me why there was antisemitism in Britain. I told him it was largely to do with the perceived suffering of the Palestinians and he retorted that the British must be mad to blame the Jewish community or Israel for that.

He finished by inviting me to his house in the Druze village in the near future and I still think that he is one of the nicest people I have met here.

As is Amal, a Druze Arab, who helped me get the ingredients for chicken soup at the local supermarket. It appears that 'chicken for making soup' doesn't hold much water here and what you need to ask for is 'fresh chicken'. Anyway, I've made it now as I have guests coming for Shabbat for the first time since aliyah and it smells OK, thank goodness.