"My son is not a killer," she sobbed. "He won't survive this."

That line from . . . On the Crossroad . . . , a play performed by Israeli actresses, occurred when a woman learns her son killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy. It is emotional . . . and controversial.

The play, which was performed by The Creative Theater, Israel, centered on two Israeli friends in the United States who perform a theatrical act glorifying Israel.

The characters evolved during the play, changing their attitudes about the glory of Israel when they discover the woman's son killed the little boy. They eventually realized their nation is in turmoil and there aren't any easy solutions.

Osama Jadaan, president of the Penn State Association for Palestine, said her tears were not for the right reasons. He said she should cry for the slain boy, not the Israeli woman's son.

"In South Africa when white people kill black people we call them pigs," Jadaan said, "but when it happens just a little further north, the story is flipped upside-down."

. . . On the Crossroad . . . was presented by Hillel and Yachad last night to address issues that leaders of those groups believed had not been addressed properly at a panel discussion in November, Hillel Rabbi Seth Mandel said.

The November panel discussion, which was sponsored by the International Student Council, was biased against Israel, Mandel said. Only one panel member was pro-Israel and three were pro-Palestinian, he said.

After the performance, tempers flared when the politics of the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising in Israel, were debated.

Abbas Aminmansour, former ISC president, called the play a "typical pro-Zionist" way of handling the problem. "If you can't address the issues, skirt them," he said.

"They were obligated to save face (after the panel discussion), but (pro-Zionists) avoided the issues," Aminmansour said. "They play with your emotions. They're very good at that."

Jadaan said it was "good that they show the audience that (the Israelis are) really killing children. They kill lots of children."

But Andy Carrol, vice president of Hillel, said, "Israel is the size of New Jersey. The West Bank is the size of Centre County."

"There is nowhere to run; this isn't Vietnam to them. This is home," said Bill Novick, USG vice president.

Carrol said the discussion and the play missed an important viewpoint -- "the Palestinians were totally ignored, even by the Moslem students. (The Moslem students) are just interested in politics. There is no real Palestinian voice. They're powerless.' "The P.L.O. leadership tells their kids to throw rocks because they have no alternative," he said.

"The Palestinians are so used to being political they've lost sight of the problem," Novick said.

Rochelle Lauderback, former president of Yachad, a Jewish student group, said she was disappointed that politics entered the discussion.

She said some of the students "were out of line. They put forth a lot of propaganda with no place in an arts performance."

Mandel was also disappointed with the politics. "The students related to (the play) in the way I wanted them to, in the personal sense. It was the older people in the audience that looked at it politically."

Susan Tomkin (senior-marketing) said she saw the personal side.

"There's a lack of communication among Jews themselves. They're all fighting politically," she said.

Mandel said last night's performance probably didn't make up for the humiliation the pro-Zionists suffered in the panel discussion because there were more people at the panel.

"I challenged (Mandel) to address the issues. I told him he could have three speakers of his choice and we would have one, but he never gave me a response," Aminmansour said.