Big deal. Happens every day in Russia, China and Iran.

But this was not a revolutionary work by a fire-eating rebel. It is a gentle novel by an appreciated female author, Dorit Rabinyan.

Her cardinal sin was the plot: a love story between a Jewish girl and an Arab boy. They meet on American soil.

The Ministry shuddered. What? A kosher daughter of Israel with an Arab Goy? Unthinkable. Like a love story between a white woman and a black man in the Atlanta of Gone with the Wind. Or between a Jewess and a pure Aryan in Hitler's Germany.

Shocking. Good that the wise men of the ministry stopped it in the nick of time.

The decision caused an uproar. Liberal teachers and commentators had a field day. Especially those who have a sense of humor. (Yes, there are some of these even in Israel.)