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" Is it too late to institute a leap year and mandate that the holidays fall on regular, convenient dates - so that Id al-Fitr will come, say, in the spring and Id al-Adha in early summer? "

Related Quotes:

" All in all, we Muslims have only two holidays, and they're always getting moved around from season to season, from month to month, because we're dependent on the moon and not the sun, and unlike the Jews, we haven't created a leap year, so we have no Adar Bet. "

Sayed Kashua

Sun

Always

Moon

" The truth is, I never travel without cash. I always take a few tens with me in case of an emergency. There's never been an emergency, and in time, I realized that Americans don't want to touch customers' dirty bills. They also don't want to touch your credit card: you have to put it through the machine yourself, with your own fingers. "

" It's problematic being an Arab who writes in Hebrew. "

" When there's a revolution in Egypt, you can't really get depressed about not knowing what happens after you die. When there are millions out on the streets, that's not the time to start panicking about contracting swine flu. "

" Somehow, since I became a family, every minute in which I am alone and not listening to two kids screaming in stereo feels like a vacation. "

" I wanted the Israeli mainstream audience to meet different kinds of Arabs - not just terrorists or politicians - and to listen to their language and their stories. "

" I don't like identity. We accept identities in Israel. We make them holy. But what does identity really mean? "

Sayed Kashua

Identity

Israel

" Sometimes I can write very angry columns, but I know that it doesn't work. "

" Israeli independence - what we Arabs call al-Naqba, 'The Catastrophe' - it created Palestinian identity more than anything else. "

" I once wrote that the first week in Jerusalem was the hardest week of my life. I was different, other; my clothes were different, as was my language. All of the classes were in Hebrew - science, bible, literature. I sat there not understanding one word. When I tried to speak, everyone would laugh at me. "

Sayed Kashua

My Life

Laugh

" I hate flying. The first time I flew with my wife, Najat, was the first time I'd ever flown in my life, and that was just a short flight to Turkey. I spent the whole time with my shirt pulled over my head. Then I got used to it. "

" Christmas is relentless. It's around the clock. I sit with my little ones in front of the TV screen, and we watch movie after movie after movie. "

" Everything in London is quite good, apart from the weather: it's cold and rainy there, and the winter is long. "

" They're completely American. When I served my son falafel in a pita the other day, he said, 'Daddy, this taco is very good.' "

" Whom do you speak to about introducing a leap year? Is it heresy to request such a thing? Why do the Jews have one and we don't? "

" Americans are connected to the situation in the West Bank and Gaza and Israel because, generally speaking, Jewish Americans were always there, and many American Jewish people connect their nationality to the Israeli one. "

" Sometimes I wonder if there is any hope left for an Israeli-Palestinian discourse that is built on equality and liberty rather than a fruitless discourse of master and servant. "

" Back in Israel, I would spend much effort and plenty of money on presents when I went abroad, even if it was only for two days. "

" Since being on television, I have felt that my brain is degenerating. "

" I'm always sad when Dad doesn't like my columns. He waits for them every week and usually likes them, in which case he doesn't say a word - it's only if he's critical that he bothers to call. "

Sayed Kashua

Always

Only

" Sometimes it seems that what really worries the Israeli governments, even more than the Muslim Brotherhood, is the real Egypt. "

" I hate it when I have to abandon my children. I politely turn down most of the invitations I get from abroad and try to fly only when it's absolutely necessary. "

" Thanksgiving is the only day of the year when most of the stores here are closed during the day and reopen after midnight. Even restaurants shut down for the holiday, except for the fast-food chains. "

" Somehow it seems that all parents are certain that they themselves were victims of abuse in school and that they will not allow this to happen to their children. Even though children can also be the cruelest group imaginable - especially the cutest of them. "

" There's a lot of hypocrisy and condescension in Israel's institutionalized support for Mubarak's tyrannical rule, in its backing of a corrupt leader who established a brutal secret police state to suppress his citizens and keep their mouths shut. "

" I'm not representing anyone - not Israelis, not Palestinians - I'm just a storyteller trying to raise more questions than give answers. "

Sayed Kashua

Answers

Just

" The smell of onion is the most effective thing for relieving stinging eyes irritated by tear gas. "

" I tell you a joke to have you listen to me, and then maybe I will tell you another joke that we can laugh together and feel equal. And then I will tell you a story hopefully that will make you cry. So I think that's the way that I approach the columns, as a surviving tool in a way. "

Sayed Kashua

You

Think

" I don't know how it works with the Jews, but here in Beit Safafa, as in every self-respecting Arab community that is respected in turn by the state, there are no street names and no house numbers. "

" Somehow, the rare trips to Tel Aviv give me the feeling that I have a career. "