Opposition leader Isaac Herzog is a person I greatly respect. We’ve held a private debate for many years that has included deep disputes and true friendship.

I apologize to him for addressing him publicly this time around. His recent exasperating statements – whether the context or otherwise – force me to go public. Whatever his intentions in his remark that he’s not an Arab-lover, the damage has been done and affixed to his name for eternity. Eternal damnation.

I wanted you to know, my dear friend Isaac, I happen to like Arabs – Arabs and others. In Jaffa, near my grandchildren, live Ihab and Ora. He is a Sufi, a spiritual man and an anthroposophist. The two set up an exceptional preschool where three of my grandchildren are taking their first steps in the world.

I also really love Ghadir, the homeroom teacher of one of my grandchildren. She’s constantly at his side due to his diabetes. Without her he wouldn’t have the happy and calm childhood that he has.

With these people our young ones are taking their first value-laden steps, the big and delicate steps that go far beyond Israeli vulgarity, brutishness and racism, the kind expressed by Herzog in his slip of the tongue.

I also love Mazen and Yvette. He’s my close friend, my guide in the subjects of love of humanity, Palestinian art and the belief in the good and decent. Their children are great lights in my firmament.

And what about Jaida? She’s simply wonderful, defining for me each day the limitations of a majority and the value of a minority, an important partner in the construction of a better and kinder Israel.

Open gallery view Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog speaking at his party's convention in Tel Aviv, February 7. 2016. Credit: Moti Milrod

Bashir is the one who exposed me to many of the theoretical topics of the day. He’s a brilliant political philosopher, a wise friend and an Arab to the roots of his soul. He’s a responsible leader, at every step wiser and more judicious than 10 Jews.

I’ll never forget the sharp-witted Nasreen, opinionated and driven by values who fearlessly fights for her rights. I’ll always remember Sam, a Ramallah businessman who knows how to blend with fine nuance all his life’s experiences: a new immigrant from the United States to Palestine, a total democrat and a proud Palestinian, a wonderful father and a brilliant intellectual.

Near him in Ramallah lives Hussam, a skilled diplomat, an economist and a political scientist. He is father to little Said, the sweetest of children. I was blessed with the rare opportunity to know, read and love Elias Khoury, the greatest writer in our region. The translation of his latest book by Prof. Yehouda Shenhav is a gem, displaying a different type of discourse, a non-Herzog type.

Yes, my friend. I love these people. Not because they are Arabs but because they are people. My world is not divided into us (the good Jews) against the rest (the bad Arabs). I don’t have an automatic loyalty toward Jews just because they’re Jews.

On the contrary, my world is divided differently than yours. On one side are all the good people – their origins and beliefs whatever they may be. On the other side are all the bad people, even when they are close friends or family members.

The coalitions that will redeem or destroy this region have some of us and some of them against some of us and some of them. The boundaries are not geographic or tribal but human and value-related.

Indeed, there are bad Jews – bad and numerous as proved repeatedly in these dark days, just as there are bad Muslims, bad Christians and even bad Hindus. They are my enemies because of their evil and maliciousness.

I am loyal only to ideas such as justice, equality, liberty, democracy and peace. My associates' ID cards are not genetic, religious or national. Because you and your friends refuse to understand this, still opting to don the skin of wolves to express the evil that lurks within you, I pray that you, Herzog, and your party never attain power. At least not with these messages.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his gang are preferable. Their evil is simple, since they say what is in their hearts. In any case, their evil is evident, making it easy to understand and even easier to oppose.

Give me one tough Zeev Elkin to 10 Laborites with their soft facial expressions. You represent the dissimulating face of Israeli evil, the one pretending to be benign and based on worthy values despite being quite the opposite. You are so dangerous because you are deceptive, misleading your voters – racists and occupiers in the guise of decent civilized people.

The undeniable fact is that when the noose tightens around your political neck, truthful admissions escape your lips. What can we do, you haven’t learned or forgotten a thing. You’re still obtuse like Golda “There’s No Palestinian People” Meir and arrogant like Ehud “We’re a Villa in the Jungle” Barak.

Against this backdrop, I’d like to thank MK Zouheir Bahloul. He offers Palestinians and Zionists a new language – nothing linguistically spectacular, but something easy to understand; a spoken Hebrew that’s also humane. Get up and leave them, Zouheir. Set up a Jewish-Arab movement.