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Policeman's murder solved. The Shin Bet has arrested a Hamas cell believed to be behind the shooting attack in which Yehoshua Sofer was killed in June, it was cleared for publication on Monday.

Two other policemen were injured in the attack when terrorists fired at their patrol car driving near the settlement of Beit Hagai, south of Hebron.

One of the cell's heads said in his interrogation that just two weeks before he embarked on the attack, his six-year-old daughter was hospitalized in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, where she had a tumor removed from her eye. The operation was funded by an Israeli organization.

Here we have two examples of "goodwill gestures" - one, a private Jewish organization that funds and facilitates expensive medical procedures for Palestinian Arabs. The other, where Israel releases prisoners - even without a swap. (In fact, Israel has released thousands of Palestinian Arab prisoners in the past couple of years.)

Both goodwill gestures were reciprocated - but with murder.

It is not racist to realize that the mentality of Palestinian Arabs is fundamentally different from that of most Westerners. It is a result of the culture they were brought up in; it is the result of decades of the most ing incitement imaginable - it is hardly genetic. The differences are there and they should not be papered over with wishful thinking. The assumption that "we are all the same under the skin" is a fatal error. The ugly truth is that, in some cultures, "goodwill gestures" are interpreted as weakness, not goodwill, and the obvious response to kindness by an enemy is violence.