Something important happened while I spent four days in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. I'd like to tell you about it.



One morning the nurses and a doctor rolled a new patient into our four-bed room. He was accompanied by his brother, mother and sister.



It was obvious from their conversation they were Arabs.



His bed was directly across from mine. I said "Shalom" and they all replied, except for the patient, who seemed to be sedated. I went back to reading my newspaper.



The patient was a medical doctor from Gaza, the director of a clinic that treats about 1,500 people a month; you name it, everything from a runny-nosed baby to gunshot wounds. Fifty three years of age, and facing quadruple bypass surgery to replace arteries totally blocked and worn out. He was admitted two days early in order to fortify him with fluids, antibiotics and medications before the operation.



His brother, who planned to stay with him, sleeping in a chair during the entire hospital stay, is a school principal, well educated, erudite, caring and communicative.



He and I had several interesting, in-depth discussions about relations between Jews and Arabs.



We basically agreed that:



* Biblically and genetically we are cousins;



* There is no reason most of us can't get along;



* There is enough of everything - land, food, water - for both peoples;



* The Arab attitudes toward Jews must change;



* The leadership of both sides have made many mistakes;



* We were glad Yasser Arafat was gone;



* We can all live in peace if the haters and killers are eliminated;



* Cooperation will bring great benefits to both sides; and



* We are both tired of this war that has dragged on for 100 years.



I was curious how someone from Gaza, a hotbed of anti-Israeli terrorism, could manage to get himself admitted into a hospital in Jerusalem.



He told me that there never was hostility between most of the doctors in Gaza and their colleagues in Israel; that, in fact, there was constant communication, and that Israeli medical people had often shipped medical supplies and medicines when Gaza had shortages, which was often. He told of numerous children sent to Israel for treatment and surgery impossible to do in Gaza, and that there never was a charge for anything!



Now, when was the last time you saw that reported on CNN or BBC, or in your daily newspaper? When did you hear Kofi Annan stand up in the United Nations and talk about that?



He told me that most of the educated people in Gaza were more than ready to live in peace with us, but that they were afraid to speak out, fearing a 'collaborator's execution'.



What he feared most, he told me, was what would happen the moment the Israeli army left Gaza following the expulsion of the Jews of Gaza. The terrorist groups - Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Hizbullah, and others - were already amassing huge stocks of arms and explosives, most brought in from Egypt. They were taking advantage of the temporary lull in fighting to build hundreds of Kassam rockets, bigger and more accurate ones, that were now being infiltrated into Samaria and Judea (the West Bank), close to most Israeli population centers.



In his eyes, a much larger, more deadly Intifada was on its way following Ariel Sharon's abandonment of Gaza.



I asked why his family don't all stay in Israel, something they might be able to arrange because of his brother's connections. He said they had discussed it, but his brother would not leave his patients without medical care, and the rest of the family would not abandon his brother.



The next morning, when it was time for me to leave the hospital, we hugged tightly, silently; one Arab, one Jew, each lost in thoughts of what 'could have been', what 'might someday be', but what, tragically, was not yet to be.