(Agence France-Presse) Lt.-Col. Magdi Mazarib, a Bedouin Muslim Arab from northern Israel, is the Israeli army's highest-ranking tracker and commands a small unit of Bedouin soldiers who use their fieldcraft skills to serve as the Jewish state's gatekeepers. Mazarib is at ease protecting his country's borders from other Arabs, fellow Muslims. "This is our country," he states simply in perfect Hebrew with a light Arabic accent. And its Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David, do not perturb Mazarib. "The flag of England also has a cross on it, and the Jews there are fine with it," he says during a tour of the Bedouin Heritage Center which houses a memorial to the 182 Bedouin killed fighting for Israel. Mazarib believes that his fellow Bedouin across the Middle East are envious of the way those in Israel live. "The state of Bedouin in Israel is better, as far as the respect we get, our progress, education," he says. "It's a different league."
2013-04-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive