JERUSALEM -- She knew he was an Israeli but the handsome, well-spoken man on
her tour seemed to be more than the carpenter he claimed to be.
For three days this week, Souhad, a Palestinian tour guide, had
enjoyed chatting with the cheerful tourist during a camel-back journey in
Jordan along part of the ancient spice route from the Persian Gulf to Gaza
on the Mediterranean.
Sponsored by a Peace Center founded by former Israeli Prime Minister
Shimon Peres, the trek included Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian tourists
and tour guides.
In the evenings, when the group pitched tents in the desert and sat
around campfires, Souhad enjoyed talking to Yomtov, as he introduced
himself. The Israeli spoke perfect Arabic and radiated an empathy she did
not associate with Israelis. She felt comfortable enough with him to tell of
the difficulties inflicted on her family in Bethlehem by the Israeli army.
Her parents, she related, had not been permitted to return to Bethlehem from
abroad and in the end had died outside their native land.
There was something about Yomtov that made it difficult for Souhad,
who declined to give her family name, to believe that he was simply a
carpenter.
"I was so impressed by his personality," she told an Israeli
reporter at the end of the trek, "that I said to him 'you've got to be more
than a carpenter. You're hiding something. You're too put together. What are
you, a prime minister or something?"
Yomtov burst out laughing. "Oho, I'm much more than that," he said.
When the group reached the border crossing point into Israel at the
end of the trek Yomtov shook Souhad's hand in farewell and acknowledged that
he was indeed something more than a weekend carpenter. He was Gen. Yomtov
Samia, commander of Israel's southern front. Souhad burst into tears.
"I couldn't control myself," she related later, "because I didn't
know how I would feel if I had known beforehand who he was. The things I
bear are just too heavy. But that's behind me now. He really is a charming
man. As far as I'm concerned he will remain the best carpenter of all."
Senior Israeli security personnel are nornmally forbidden from
entering Arab countries except on official business for fear that they might
be abducted by terrorists seeking to pry information from them. Gen. Samia
and a divisional commander who joined him on the trek received special
permission but were obliged not to reveal their true identities until they
reached the border.
Gen. Samia, a former paratroop officer, had commanded Israeli forces
in the Gaza Strip during the intifada, the Palestinian uprising. Even during
the worst of the turmoil at the time, he always displayed empathy towards
the Palestinians in media interviews even as his troops were attempting to
supress the riots. He declined to be interviewed about this week's trip
except to say that it was "a wonderful
experience".
Abraham Rabinovich is JWR's Israel Correspondent.
