The word also refers to the sabra plant, a type of prickly pear endemic in the Middle East.

But the hardy sabra bushes remained an indelible part of the landscape even after most traces of the villages were erased.

Mr. Oz was a sabra, or native-born Israeli who grew up in Jerusalem when it was under British control.

It fell in love with the young sabras who had beaten three Arab armies.

In their ethnic garb, often with no knowledge of Hebrew, they struck the native-born Israeli sabras and the European Ashkenazim as provincial and uneducated.