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Cherry-picking time By Gideon Levy The Golan Heights are red. At every intersection, juicy, meaty, burgundy-hued cherries are being sold. The season has just began. There are pick-your-own places, as well as dozens of Druze farmers offering their beautiful crop for NIS 30 a kilo. But the talk of the day in the Druze villages and the Jewish settlements is once again, not for the first time and probably not for the last either, the contacts with Syria. This time they coincide with the start of the cherry season. On an ordinary weekday the Golan is deserted. The roads are empty, almost like those of the West Bank, and the Israel Defense Forces are a strong presence, also as in the West Bank. Nevertheless, here the soldiers drive around in open jeeps, unlike in the West Bank. For now the occupation here, like the security situation, is more comfortable. "The Lord will come in fire, and His chariots shall be like the whirlwind," reads the inscription on the monument for Brigade 7, reminding us of what happened and what is still likely to happen in these breathtaking expanses, which always look like a battlefield during the lulls between one war and the next. The minefields that have not been cleared, the ruins of houses that have not been removed and the abandoned tanks. "We will uproot heroes," someone wrote on one Syrian tank, perhaps as a hint of the future. Advertisement Mei Eden mineral water, the Golan Heights wineries, the Golan olive press, the schnitzel place and even the factory for automatic doors in the industrial zone of Katzrin, the largest of the settlements we have been taught to call "communities." At the edge of the industrial zone there are two cemeteries, one for Jews and the other for "non-Jews." In the latter, Anastasia Burlakov, Maxim Schwartzman and about 20 more Russian immigrants are interred, their names engraved in Cyrillic letters on the gravestones. One can also "travel back in time" at the Talmudic Village in nearby Katzrin Park, another sign of our right to this land. Katzrin is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the state, "Yesterday and Tomorrow," according to the many signs to be seen here - far more than in Tel Aviv. "Soldier and commander, close the cattle gate, by order," reads the sign at the entrance to one of the paths. The Golan is full of military signs and with them the childish names of the forces: Python Battalion, Dragon Battalion, Lightning Division. "Death to the Arabs" on the ruins of the lovely mosque in Husainiyah, along with many other derogatory inscriptions and piles of garbage left behind by soldiers and civilians in a place that is sacred, but not to us. If a synagogue in Europe was desecrated in this manner, we would be up in arms. Banners proclaiming "We won't move an inch" and "The keys to the Golan are in the people's hands" from the last campaign lie along the road at the entrance to Emek Habakha (Valley of Tears); soon there will be third-, fourth- and fifth-generation signs of the struggle that did not and will not take place. Meanwhile the Israel Trail is here. There are markers in the area. Pianist Alex Brenner of Kiryat Shmona, a new immigrant from Russia, gives a piano lesson in a room on the first floor of a modern office building in the middle of the Druze village of Majdal Shams. His Druze student is playing Tchaikovsky. Brenner hums along with her in enjoyment. In the parking garage, a young woman in modern clothing settles her toddler daughter into a luxury Volvo. The elevator rises silently to the sixth floor. This is the modern home of the Arab Association for the Development of the Golan. Six floors of clinics and laboratories, among the social services provided by the association, as a response to and as competition for those provided - or not provided - by the Israeli occupation. The director is Dr. Taysir Mara'i, 48, a biology researcher who studied at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of California - Los Angeles and a Danish university. The association is studying the cancer-causing genes in smokers, in cooperation with the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and Rebecca Sieff Hospital, Safed. It also has a promising startup company that grows shiitake mushrooms on decaying apple trees. About 80 employees, including 32 doctors, provide medical services to the people of the Golan's five Druze villages, as subcontractors of Israeli HMOs. Most of the budget is generated by revenues, in addition to some donations from Europe. The association has also begun marketing the medical administration software it has developed. The Leumit Health Fund has already expressed interested in the program. Mara'i was born here, under Syrian rule through the first grade and since then under Israeli rule. In the 1990s - following the euphoria of the Madrid Conference, when the Golan Druze hastened to buy cars, because they are more expensive in Syria, and to sell their homes, because real estate is cheaper there - and the bitter disappointment that followed, Mara'i and his friends came to the conclusion that the Israeli occupation would continue for a long time, and therefore they founded the Golan association. With the flag of Sweden, not Syria, and of course not Israel, on his desk, he hosts "alternative tourism" here, the kind that comes to see the Israeli occupation in its various districts. "In the 1970s people were deathly afraid of the occupation and they didn't have the courage to talk about politics. In the 1980s the feeling took root that the Israeli occupation was very temporary, a new generation arose that knows the Israelis firsthand, and popular activity began. In the 1990s we came to the conclusion that the occupation was long-term, and then we thought of undertaking more serious activity and thus we established the association, in order to maintain our Syrian identity. "All the services in the Golan are part of the pressure being applied by the Israeli establishment. There are brainwashing mechanisms that the Israelis operate in the Golan Heights. Opening the doors to Israel, that is the positive interpretation, as well as pressure such as the school curriculum in which we have to study the history of Zionism, [Jewish writers] S.Y. Agnon and Shalom Aleichem, and the viewpoint that they are trying to teach us: You are Druze and not Arabs, the Druze are the bravest, you aren't like the Arabs who are liars and cowards." That's why they say that the association is "for the development of Arab villages," Arabs and not Druze, as the Israelis say. The religion is Druze but the nationality is Arab, explains Mara'i. Mara'i has three brothers in Syria, two of whom he hasn't seen since childhood. The euphoria of Madrid is not returning now, even with the renewal of talks. "Now we feel that there's something serious, but this scenario of talks that don't lead to anything is familiar to us." Aren't you afraid of Syrian rule? "I can't ignore 41 years of my life. I'm not a typical Syrian. We have developed many friendships and ties with Israelis, we grew up as part of Israeli society. I can't deny that. We are at a transition point and we are hesitant. Even a wedding is a happy event and people are hesitant about what will happen afterward. I believe that if and when there is peace we will be the first to enjoy its fruits, emotionally and financially. We will be between two societies. We are familiar with the Israelis and we have not cut ourselves off from the Syrians. All the business will be done via us. In order to stabilize the peace, the Europeans and the Americans will send a lot of money. They will build an international airport in the Golan, a train between Africa and Europe, a water pipeline from Turkey and many other projects. I'm sure the Syrians will build cities in the Golan and develop the region. We have been exposed to Israeli knowledge and technology, which are more advanced than Syria's. We have a Jewish head and Arab feet. If you want a racist remark with a smile: Arab work and a Jewish head. The average Israeli likes to hear such sayings, after all." How do you feel about your neighbors, the Israeli settlers? "On a personal level I don't hate groups. I don't love nor hate the Jews, I don't love or hate Syrians. I enjoy a good neighbor, but they are not good neighbors. Anyone who takes it upon himself to be a settler, to live on someone else's ruins, must have something bad in his personality. They understand very well that they are living on the ruins of others, they know exactly how they destroyed the villages and expelled the residents, and yet the Israelis call them pioneers. There is something very ugly about them." Will you understand their pain if they have to evacuate? "Yes, I'll understand but let them not hold us, the Syrians or the peace responsible for their pain. Even someone who has murdered and is sitting in jail is in pain. But let them not hold the police or the court responsible. Anyone who makes a mistake must suffer. It doesn't make me happy, but he is personally responsible. The State of Israel pushed them here, there is a lot of business behind their coming here. Maybe I can understand the pain of someone who was born here, but anyone who came here in the 1990s, don't let him say that it hurts him. Some of their shouting is directed toward compensation. I think that they deserve punishment, not compensation. Even if we understand the occupation, how can we understand the settlements? The exploitation of resources? If I were in the Syrian government I would demand compensation from Israel. I think the Israeli establishment is responsible to the Syrians for all the destruction, for the fact that I don't know my brothers and can't meet with them - for that, I deserve compensation. Something is causing me to live this way. And I'm a very light case." What do you think of your fellow Druze who serve in the IDF? "Anyone who serves in the IDF is defined as an enemy. I have more connections with progressive Jews and Israelis than with Zionist Druze." And the Syrian regime? "I don't have many fantasies. But even if the regime in Syria is not the most progressive, that does not give any legitimization to the Israeli occupation, even if it's good. The moment I live in Syria I will express my opinion of the regime there. At the moment I'm living under the occupation." Is peace on the way? "One doesn't make peace out of love, and one doesn't make war out of hatred. These are processes. Nor is peace made between the strong and the weak. Peace happens between balanced forces. You cannot separate Syria from Iran, Hezbollah and the Arab opposition camp. Syria has enough power now. Imagine that 10,000 missiles were to fall simultaneously on Israel. Israel would collapse. I'm not sure that two nuclear bombs on Iran would destroy it to the same extent. We saw that in the Lebanon War. If I were a good Zionist and a good Israeli, I would make peace quickly. That's my recommendation to Israel. If the other side becomes even stronger, it's liable to be too late for Israel. The moment that Israel begins to talk face-to-face there will be peace. It will take another decade and I hope we won't be forced to undergo another round of violence beforehand. Everything is in the Israelis' hands. "I think that they need another round of violence. Olmert's generation is a generation of leaders who look four years ahead at most. Sharon may have been the last one who looked further. Israelis may not understand what Sharon did: He was such a Zionist that he agreed to give up parts of the Land of Israel in order to preserve the State of Israel. The present gang looks more at itself. If they look at what happened in the summer of 2006, maybe they will reach the right conclusions and run toward peace. But I'm not sure that they have reached the right conclusions from what happened in 2006." Bookmark to del.icio.us   A staunch ally Obama to AIPAC: I'll do everything to prevent Iran from obtaining nukes. Pro-Israel Nazis German group condemns anti-Semitism, says Holocaust 'unjustifiable.'

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