Fool Akhdar

My new favorite Palestinian food is grean beans cooked with lamb with
yogurt on top or fresh blended lemon sauce. Just thought I'd let you
know.

Sent from my iPhone

Law & Order

A minor traffic accident results in a brawl between the driver, her
formidable daughters, and a female police officer. The cops had to use
a tazer to complete their arrest. A male police officer even loaded
his Kalashnikov dramatically, to absolutely no effect.

Cool stone bridge.

From New Album 4/28/09 11:08 PM

This little bridge is in a botanical garden in Okayama City, not far from where Alex lives.

Swine flu kosherized in Israeli Knesset

"On what must have been a slow day at the Knesset, the de facto head of the Health Ministry, MK Yakov Litzman, stated Monday that swine flu would be from here on in referred to as "Mexico Flu," as pork is non-kosher and considered unclean under Jewish law."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081546.html

Pretty girlfriend in pretty Japan.

From New Album 4/28/09 11:08 PM Here's a picture of Alex on the footbridge in front of Okayama City's famous black castle.  I'm pretty sure the entire thing burned down in the Second World War as a result of Allied bombing, but the Japanese have done an incredible reconstruction.

From New Album 4/28/09 11:08 PM

I don't remember where I found this flower, somewhere in Okayama, but I think it's a poppy.

From New Album 4/28/09 11:08 PM Night scene outside the Okayama train station, where Alex and I were playing with slow shutter speeds to try to get streaky headlights.  I got a couple of good ones, but I decided I liked the shuffling feet better than the headlight traces.

Salt on wounds.

From New Album 4/28/09 11:08 PM

Israeli settlers in Ramallah, West Bank, shoot off fireworks in honor of Israel's Memorial Day.

I was sitting in my hotel room reading a book when I heard what sounded like that popcorn-like bursts of a light machine gun in the street outside.  Turns out it was Israeli settlers shooting off fireworks from the hilltop near my hotel, overlooking Ramallah and Al-Bireh, where their illegal settlement grows by the day.  

This week the Israelis celebrate Memorial Day and Independence Day, remembering their war dead and commemorating the 1948 victory over Arab armies in the War of Independence that enable the creation of the State of Israel.  Palestinians call that war "El-Nakba," or, The Disaster.

My friend Michael's modeling career.

While traveling in Ecuador with a few friends, my buddy Michael somehow managed to get his modeling career off the ground. Watch out world . . .

Agribusiness, gross.

"In Mexico, state health authorities looking for the initial source of the outbreak toured a million-pig hog farm in Perote, in Veracruz State. The plant is half-owned by Smithfield Foods, an American company and the world’s largest pork producer." — New York Times, 28 April 2009
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/health/29flu.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp)

Pigs are not small animals. One million pigs probably weigh as much if not more than one million human beings, and ostensibly live in pig-squalor worse than the worst human squalor on Earth. I don't know this for a fact, I'm just guessing, and basing my guess on the fact that pigs are famous for rolling around in mud and shit (and also for being clean and highly intelligent, though I've never really bought this line of shameless propaganda). Hence the expression, "happy as a pig in shit."

I have to say, even though I have probably eaten a fair share of Smithfield pork, I find the idea of a one-million-strong pig farm pretty disgusting. I just hope that this swine flu doesn't blow up into a pandemic and give the two of the three major peoples of the book who follow anti-swine dietary restrictions an excuse to say, "I told you so." I can already sense the self-righteousness brewing around these parts, a smirk here, and wag of a finger there. "I told you so, but you wouldn't listen. It says right here in the [Koran/Torah], pigs are unclean, thou shalt not eat pepperoni pizza or saucisson."

Mutant citrus

This crazy treat is called a bomula. It's a citrus fruit that's about
the size of a soccer ball before the skin is whittled off, after which
it's the size of a slightly smaller soccer ball. The taste is
somewhere between a mild orange and a mild grapefruit, no hint of
soccer ball at all. I ate it at my new friends' house near the hotel
where I am staying in Ramallah. Razan works with me at CARE and she
and her brother Mohammad have ensured that I don't whither away in the
hotel after work, so tonight they invited me over for spaghetti and
bomula and fresh picked corn on the cob with their parents. Mrs.
Jalajel is an excellent bomula carver, as the photo shows. Once again,
I find myself marveling at the hospitality I seem to find everywhere I
turn. As much as anything else I am learning here-- language,
politics, history -- I know that some of the most important lessons I
will take away from Palestine are to be found in the simple moments
like the one I shared with the Jalajels tonight. Be nice, be generous,
be grateful.

Stars & Bucks Coffee

This is the Stars & Bucks Café in Ramallah, West Bank. Though this is obviously a ripoff of America's favorite skinny soy Milky Way double shot latté with non-fat organic whipped cream and one chocolate sprinkle, there is a real deal Nike Store just down the street, which I found pretty surprising. I stared through the window for at least twenty minutes trying to discover whether the Nike Store was a real, authentic branch or an elaborately constructed fake, and I decided that even though the store was obviously real (there was one behind my house in Cairo too), it was cooler to think of it as a fake and imagine the weeks and months of planning and procurement that went into the incredibly well done forgery.

The Dome of the Rock

Here's a shot of the Dome of the Rock, the second holiest site in Islam, in East Jerusalem. On the outside of the wall, you can see a Muslim cemetery that was constructed to prevent the Messiah from returning through the sealed gates to the right of the Dome of the Rock, which he is prophesied to do UNLESS he has to walk through a cemetery to get there. Ironic that the Muslims would take precautions against the return of the Messiah when the Koran makes it explicit that Islam is a non-messianic faith that views Jesus as nothing more than a human prophet.

The Dome of the Rock sits atop the Temple Mount, over the ruins of the Second Temple, which was Judaism's holiest site until it was destroyed by the Romans during the Jewish rebellion of 70 CE. In fact, the Temple Mount is still Judaism's holiest site, since it is home to the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, which is supposed to be the only remnant of the Second Temple. According to Jewish lore, the temple must be rebuilt in order to precipitate the arrival of the Messiah. Some Christians believe the temple must be rebuilt before Christ will come a second time, because for them once is not enough.

In order for the temple to be rebuilt, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa, both of which sit atop the Temple Mount, would need to be destroyed. These two mosques are Islam's second and third holiest sites, respectively. Mohammad — the last and final prophet, according to Islam, and the messenger who delivered the Holy Koran from God to mere mortals — apparently flew from the spot where the Dome now stands to heaven, accompanied by the angel Gabriel. Muslims call that magical trip the "night flight." Suffice to say, the destruction of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa probably wouldn't bode well for relations between Jews and Muslims, even if it did bring about the Messiah (first or second coming, depending on who you're talking to).

From Dome of the Rock 4/22/09 5:22 PM

I took this picture from an observatory in East Jerusalem above the most desired resting place in Judaism, the cemetery in the foreground.
A group of Orthodox Jews says prayers over the tomb of a relative while a bored soldier stands guard. It's the height of tourism season and the area is choked with foreigners in shorts and baseball hats. A few hundred meters downhill to the right is the garden where Jesus supposedly ate the Last Supper, though the story is believed to be archeologically unprovable. To the left of the Temple Mount, slightly out of the frame, is the excavated City of David.

On Gaza + Blockade

"Hungry, angry, unhealthy communities do not make good partners for peace."

— Gaza/West Bank Director of United Nations Relief & Works Agency on the effects of the Israeli siege against Gaza.

The longest shortest flight ever.

From Ramallah 4/20/09 9:48 PM

A fruit and vegetable market in downtown Ramallah.


Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine — Today I arrived in Ramallah to begin working for CARE International, though I won't report to the office until tomorrow. Monday was a holiday in Palestine in honor of Easter, celebrated a week later by Arab Christians. I took advantage of the Easter festivities in Cairo by going to a Coptic Christian service in Zamalek, the neighborhood where I lived last Autumn before traveling to Gaza. Coptic Christians number about 8 million in Egypt, roughly ten-percent of the population. The Coptic community predates Islam by several hundred years and is a direct descendent of one of the earliest Christian groups. The Copts are orthodox, and they have a pope in Cairo called the Baba. Arabic doesn't have a "p" phoneme, so "Papa" becomes "Baba." Pope is also "Papa" in Spanish and Italian. The service was very different from what I grew up with in Episcopalian and Catholic churches. There was a lot of incense, a lot of standing (no sitting, in fact), constant chanting, and no liturgy or sermon. My theory is that hours of standing and chanting in the Coptic church equate to self-flagellation and other forms of self-chastisement in the name of God that one finds in European traditions. I felt like I was in the Army all over again, and I began to slouch almost immediately, leaning on the pew in front of me in a mixture of boredom and fatigue, only slightly worried that everyone around me would think I was a weak-willed sinner, lacking the moral fortitude and yearning spirit necessary to stand stick-straight for God. Well, I suppose they may have been onto something. Fear of God contributes to good posture.

From Ramallah 4/20/09 9:48 PM

The view of Ramallah from my hotel. One of the first things I've noticed is that there aren't super high walls around all of the family homes as there are in Gaza, and graffiti doesn't flank every walkway in town.


The El Al flight from Cairo to Israel last night was a hell of an experience. It took me over an hour to check-in, despite the fact that I was the only person in line. My bags were thoroughly ransacked and the security officials interrogated me to the point where I finally wondered if they were just delaying me so that I would miss the flight because they had already made up their minds that I was up to something fishy, which, of course, I was not. I had the invitation letter from CARE in hand clearly stating the purpose of my visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the length of my stay, the address of my hotel and of the CARE office. I could hardly have been a less shady character, despite the fact that it was two o'clock in the morning and I was flying from Cairo to Tel Aviv, on a flight that doesn't exist according to the El Al Airlines website. That fact amuses me. Do they keep it off the list of origins and destinations for PR reasons? Do they fly at 2:45 (it's a one hour flight) for PR reasons too? Not wanting people to see an Israeli flag on the tail of the El Al 747, lined up with all the Gulfie jets and European carriers? In terms of security, it is probably better to ensure that people buy their tickets between Cairo and Tel Aviv in person. Still, there's something a little weird about the whole thing. I wonder if there's a flight to Lebanon too? Or Syria? Tehran? No, probably not. The Cairo to Tel Aviv line is unique — it's an indicator of how close the two countries actually are.

Israel is beautiful. I only saw it from the window of the car this morning, but I got a good scoop of farmland and scrub brush covered piedmont that looked more like Tuscany than anywhere else I can think of. It wasn't easy to enjoy, however, knowing the history of that much contested, much changed land and knowing, of course, where I'm going.

From Ramallah 4/20/09 9:48 PM

Another view from my hotel shows an illegal Israeli settlement perched on a hill above Ramallah. Settlements like these coat all the hilltops of greater Jerusalem. For West Bank residents, the continually expanding settlements, or "mustamaraat," are a source of fear and resentment.

Japan Photos 1

These are photos from my recent trip to Japan. Alex and I had a wonderful time traveling in her region, Okayama Prefecture, and also in Tokyo and Osaka. I'll post a second batch of photos soon. I was lucky to be in Japan during Sakura season, the season when thousands of cherry blossom trees come into bloom. We also went to a Sumo wrestling competition!! In Tokyo, we went to Tsukiji fish market, a sprawling complex that supplies Tokyo with 90% of its fish on a daily basis. It was, in a word, amazing.

By Elliott D. Woods

February 25, 2009

The Washington Times

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip | Palestinian fringe movements will for the first time join major players Fatah and Hamas in Cairo this week to discuss a long-term cease-fire with Israel and the formation of a unified Palestinian government.

But the participation Thursday of senior cadres from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) may be a mixed blessing, because they are just as opposed as Hamas to recognizing the Jewish state.

Outnumbered by Hamas in terms of followers, PIJ and the PFLP have well-armed, clandestine paramilitary wings that give them the ability to wreck any cease-fire.

Suicide bombers from Hamas and the two fringe groups have killed hundreds of Israelis over the past two decades and the groups' rocket teams in Gaza appear to operate outside the control of Hamas.

Daniel Byman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, said the groups “don't want to be marginalized. For them, it's a big deal to be asked” to join talks.

At the same time, he said, the Palestinians may be looking to unify in anticipation that there will be no meaningful peace talks if Benjamin Netanyahu, a hawkish Israeli politician, becomes prime minister in a new government.

Israel refuses to talk directly with Hamas, PIJ or PFLP because it considers them to be terrorist groups.

Instead, the Palestinians from Gaza and Israel are to negotiate separately with Egypt, which is acting as a mediator.

The PFLP was founded in 1967 by the late George Habash, a Palestinian Christian. It has long been considered a terrorist organization, carrying out numerous airline hijackings in the 1970s.

The PFLP nevertheless earned respect from Palestinians because it was less corrupt than Fatah, Mr. Byman said.

The current leader of the PFLP in Gaza, Dr. Rabah Mohanna, an endocrinologist by profession, rejects the terrorist moniker. “We are fighting for our rights, for justice, and for our land,” he told The Washington Times.

Swairjo Dolfikar, director of PFLP Radio, added, “Stay in Gaza for a while, you´ll see who the terrorist is.”

Mr. Dolfikar, a pharmacist, was referring to Israel, which killed more than 1,300 Palestinians during a 22-day offensive in Gaza last month. Israel attacked in response to Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns.

The PFLP is secular while PIJ - as its name makes clear - is not. It emerged about two decades ago from the Palestinian branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which had rejected the use of violence to achieve political objectives. Iran has been a major backer of PIJ for over a decade, Mr. Byman said.

The armed wings of the PFLP and PIJ fought alongside Hamas´ Al-Qassam Brigades during the recent fighting with Israel.

The semi-Marxist PFLP disagrees with Hamas´ goal of establishing a theocracy in the Palestinian territories, starting with Gaza, but has similar ambitions to remake the Jewish state.

“Hamas wants to create an Islamic state in the Gaza Strip,” Mr. Dolfikar said. “We want to liberate all of Palestine.”

PIJ and Hamas both share roots in the Muslim Brotherhood. However, Hamas envisions the resurrection of a transnational caliphate - the Islamic empire that ruled much of the Middle East, North Africa and even parts of Europe for a thousand years.

Khaled al-Batch, chief of PIJ in Gaza, says his group's ambitions do not extend beyond the boundaries of pre-1948 Palestine.

“The era of the caliphate was over a long time ago,” he said. “We need a modern, advanced form of government.”

PIJ also rejects the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) almost as adamantly as it does Israel and has refused to participate in legislative elections - unlike Hamas and the PFLP.

“Islamic Jihad cannot accept the PA because doing so would mean we acknowledge the state of Israel and all of the elements of Oslo,” Mr. al-Batch said.

The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) created the Palestinian Authority as the foundation for a separate Palestinian state.

The PFLP, PIJ and Hamas reject a two-state solution and opposed Oslo because it provided no “right of return” for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in 1948 and subsequent wars.

However, when fighting broke out in 2007 between Hamas and Fatah security forces, PIJ and the PFLP sought to mediate.

“Neither [Hamas nor Fatah] has any right to kill Palestinians,” Mr. al-Batch said.

Dr. Mohanna blamed the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for making concessions at Oslo that created violent splits in the PLO.

Mr. Arafat “gave it all up for a poisoned cake,” he said, referring to the Palestinian Authority.

Dr. Mohanna said reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah and the creation of a unity government is a top priority for the PFLP, which remains a member of the PLO, unlike Hamas and PIJ. “There can be no real progress on the Palestinian question if we do not work together,” he said.

Mr. al-Batch agreed, even though PIJ will not join a unity government.

“We should stand together until we have independence,” he said.

What remains unclear is whether the PFLP and PIJ will abide by a long-term cease-fire with Israel. If one is reached, the two groups retain the capability to shatter any truce with the push of a button.

Elliott D. Woods reported from Gaza with the aid of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

By Elliott D. Woods

February 13, 2009

The Washington Times

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip | In the teacher's lounge at Al-Qahira Girls School, Nashwa Annan's exasperation was clear as she tried to convince her colleagues that there are no real differences between the main contenders for Israeli prime minister.

"For us, [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Tzipi] Livni are just two sides of the same coin. It's just a question of who will kill more Palestinians," she said.

Mrs. Annan, 47, teaches English to fifth-graders. Twenty-two of her students lost their homes in the recent Israeli offensive, and according to Mrs. Annan, all of them are traumatized.

Despite her dismissal of political variation among Israeli politicians, other Gazans, speaking in the aftermath of Israel's elections, said that they worry that the rightward shift of Israeli politics bodes poorly for Gazans and Palestinians in general.

Many here said that a centrist or left-leaning Israeli government would be more likely to ease a tough blockade of their beleaguered enclave, resolve disputes over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and achieve a more durable cease-fire with Hamas.

"I stayed up until 4 a.m. watching the Israeli news," said Mohammad Matter, 22, who studies English literature at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City, "I was so excited that Livni was winning. But then my father, who speaks Hebrew, told me that Netanyahu and Likud might run the government anyway. I was crushed."

Israel's Election Commission released the final results of Tuesday's vote on Thursday, which confirmed the exit polls. Mrs. Livni's centrist Kadima party won 28 seats in the 120-seat parliament, one seat more than Mr. Netanyahu's Likud - both far less than the required 61-seat majority.

Typical of his generation, Mr. Matter has watched in dismay as living conditions and personal freedoms in this tiny enclave on the Mediterranean have eroded, along with hopes for peace.

Optimism briefly surfaced in 2005 when Israel withdrew all its troops and thousands of Israeli settlers from the territory, captured from Egypt in the 1967 war. But brutal infighting soon followed, pitting Fatah security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against the armed brigades of Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement that won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006.

In June 2007, Hamas seized power in Gaza, brutally ejecting Fatah officials. Israel reacted by slapping a near-total blockade on the enclave, closing Gaza's lone seaport and shutting down crossings to Egypt and Israel for all but the most basic commodities.

The blockade threw the Strip into an economic nose dive from which it has not recovered, despite a network of tunnels under the Egyptian border that has allowed some Gazan merchants to function.

Then, on Dec. 27, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead, a 22-day assault on Hamas that left Gaza's infrastructure in ruins and more than 1,300 dead, along with 13 Israelis. Israel launched the operation in response to rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel.

While the makeup of the next Israeli government is not yet clear, Gazans fear the influence of Avigdor Lieberman, leader of an extreme-right party, who has advocated a mandatory loyalty oath for Arab Israelis and offhandedly suggested that Israel use nuclear weapons to make the reoccupation of Gaza "unnecessary."

Mr. Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu, or Israeli is Our Home, came in third with 15 seats, beating the Labor party of Ehud Barak, who is regarded as more moderate even though he served as defense minister during the Gaza offensive. Labor won only 13 seats, followed by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party with 11.

Mrs. Livni's deputies are currently engaged in talks with Hamas through Egyptian intermediaries in Cairo, and a sliver of hope remains that negotiators will reach a long-term cease-fire whereby Israel will lift the blockade in exchange for measures to prevent Hamas' rearmament and the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.

While Mrs. Livni inspires scant hope here, Mr. Netanyahu rankles.

"Livni said during her campaign that she would continue to negotiate for a two-state solution," Mr. Matter said. "This was very good. But Netanyahu said he wouldn't negotiate, that he would rid all political movements from Gaza and the West Bank, Fatah and Hamas."

As for Mr. Lieberman, "he said he wants to look across Gaza from Ashkelon to Rafah and see only land, no people. This is scary!" said Mr. Matter, who sat with his friends, drinking tooth-numbingly sweet Nescafe and smoking cigarettes at a Gaza City cafe.

"We live in a prison," Mr. Matter said. "You see that box of tissues there? If you told me that you could take me out of Gaza in that box, I would find a way to get into it."

His friends laughed wryly at his exasperation, but Mr. Matter wasn't joking.

Mr. Woods traveled to the Gaza Strip on a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

On Jan. 23, worshipers flocked to mosques like Al-Amari Mosque in Gaza City for the first Friday prayers since Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire. The Imam stressed a message of "patience." (Elliot D. Woods/Pulitzer Center)

Game of life and death continues

Despite cease-fire, Gaza still feels to many like a war zone.

By Elliott D. Woods - Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Published: January 27, 2009 16:03 ET
Updated: February 19, 2009 18:55 ET

^-A ⁺A

GAZA CITY — Seven-year-old Ahmed Haslan was playing at a neighbor's house last week, in the village of Shujayeh, near Gaza's border with Israel, when a bullet struck him in the head, leaving him within an inch of his life.

Dr. Omar Al-Manassra, a trauma physician at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Haslan is in critical condition, held an x-ray of Haslan's head, pointing to the bullet that remains lodged in his skull.

"We had been hearing sporadic firing near the border all morning," said Majid Haslan, Ahmed's father. But Haslan was unprepared for the shock of finding his son wounded, almost a week after Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire, ending its 22-day conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Stories like that of Ahmed Haslan leave residents here deeply skeptical of the Israeli cease-fire. They say that Israeli snipers have been firing randomly on farms and towns near Israel's border with Gaza, and fisherman claim that Israeli patrol boats have been firing on Gaza's Mediterranean coastline.

The Spokesperson's Office of the Israel Defense Forces claims that gunboats have fired warning shots at fishing vessels that violated the Israeli naval blockade — about five kilometers offshore — but the IDF claims to have no knowledge of gunfire in the area where Ahmed Haslan was wounded and says it is investigating the matter.

On Tuesday, a bomb planted by Hamas fighters near the Kissufim border crossing with Israel killed one IDF soldier and wounded three, according to Israeli authorities. The attack marks the first major act of violent resistance mounted by Hamas since the tentative cease-fire began on January 18.

Israeli helicopters retaliated immediately, according to Palestinian villagers near Kissufim, killing Anwar Zamoura, 28, a vegetable farmer from the town of Abassan Zourira.

As Israel and Hamas negotiate through Egyptian intermediaries in Cairo, rising violence in the Gaza Strip casts a pall of doubt over the possibility of a long-term cease-fire. Hamas officials balked at Israel's proposal of an 18-month cease-fire, suggesting a one-year term instead.

Hamas has demanded the free passage of cargo through land ports on the Egyptian and Israeli borders as a primary condition for a lasting cease-fire. But during a trip to Brussels last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asked the international community to help Israel strengthen its blockade against Gaza, not lift it.

The Israeli Air Force hammered the illegal tunnel network on Gaza's border with Egypt during the three-week conflict in an attempt to shut down the flow of weapons to Hamas, and Israeli officials have said that they will continue to combat smuggling in the area.

"Israel reserves the right to react militarily against the tunnels once and for all," Livni told her European counterparts.

Hamas supporters say that recovering from the devastating Israeli onslaught will keep their fighters occupied in the coming months, and that renewed efforts at resistance will have to wait.

"I don't think Hamas will resist in the near future," said Ibrahim Al-Madhoum, 30, a writer for the pro-Hamas publication Al-Bian who holds a Masters Degree in Middle East Politics from Al-Quds Open University in Gaza City. "At this moment, Hamas has to focus on rebuilding."

Mr. Al-Madhoum's predictions appear misguided in light of Tuesday's attack on IDF forces. However, during a sixth-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas last year, which ended days before the recent conflict began, Hamas launched dozens of rockets and mortars into southern Israel, suggesting that Hamas' definition of cease-fire allows for minor resistance operations.

Gazans cite numerous incidents like the wounding of Ahmed Haslan as evidence that Israeli cease-fires are also nominal at best.

Despite mounting tensions on the border, residents here are losing no time assembling the remnants of their lives, salvaging the usable bits and pieces of their homes, seeking distraction in smoke-filled sandwich shops and Internet cafes.

For prominent allies of the Hamas political rival, Fatah, however, the cease-fire has been accompanied by fears of retributive violence.

A local leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a breakaway group from that previously controlled by Yasser Arafat, pulled out a flower-printed spiral notebook and ran through a list of people he claimed had been tortured or killed by Hamas since the recent conflict began.

"They gouged out Ahmed Shaqura's eye and shot him in the legs. They said he was a spy because he had an Orange cellphone," said the leader, who asked to remain unnamed out of fear for his family's safety. The man he was referring to was an electrician with mobile service from Orange Cellular, an AT&T affiliate that provides mobile service in Israel, he said.

Shaqura, 52, was rushed to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis for treatment, but doctors could not save him.

Khaled Shaqura claims that Hamas murdered his brother, Ahmed, after kidnapping him from Nasser Hospital around 4 a.m. on Jan. 15. The Revolutionary Council source suspects that Hamas targeted Ahmed Shaqura because of Khaled's ties to the previous Fatah government.

"Hamas is a fundamentalist organization that considers Fatah members non-Muslims and thinks they should be killed," the source said. "It is extremely dangerous for us here."

Hamas Ministry of Interior officials have acknowledged they are currently investigating and arresting "collaborators," but have rejected claims that they are targeting Fatah exclusively.
In the narrow alleys of Beach Camp, home to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, young Fatah supporters seem unfazed by talk of an anti-Fatah backlash.

"I've heard about it, but I haven't seen it here," said Mohammad Kollab, 23, a Fatah policeman before the 2007 Hamas takeover.

Asked whether the rumors scared him, he laughed, turned to a group of friends who he said had ties to Hamas, and yelled, "I'm Fatah!"

Among ordinary Gazans, the misery and hardship arising from last month's conflict and the struggle to regain normalcy have pushed politics to the fringes of daily life.

Seeking shelter from the wrenching sorrow that hangs over Gaza City like a cloud, Muslims flocked to mosques on Friday, the Islamic holy day, for the first Friday prayers since the cease-fire. Ahab Hassoun, 31, a former soldier under the Fatah government, said he felt relieved after attending prayers at Al-Amari Mosque in Gaza City.

"I was so heartbroken, but the sheikh," Gaza Mufti Abdel Karim Al-Kahlout, "talked about holding hope for our children, and about patience," Hassoun said.

Twenty-two members from Hassoun's extended family died during the three-week war, but he managed a sobering smile as he recounted the sheikh's optimistic message. "This day is better than the last days," he said, "at least it is calm and safe."

(Elliott D. Woods is reporting from Gaza on a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.)

Gaza faces ice age on eve of Israeli elections

By Elliott D. Woods
First Published: February 9, 2009

A boy sells recyclable bits of metal and plastic on front of the wreckage of Al-Amari Mosque in Rafah City, Gaza. January 17, 2009.

GAZA CITY: “It doesn’t matter who wins in Israel, they are all the same to Gaza.”

Such was the sentiment of Said Sharafa, 26, a Gazan employee of DHL Express, with regard to upcoming Knesset elections in Israel. Sharafa’s statement points to a general sense of foreboding that overshadows an already dark horizon for Gazans, regardless of their political affiliation.

Looking at the lineup of Israeli Knesset tickets, there are no bright spots from the Palestinian perspective. In the wake of Israel’s 22-day offensive against Hamas — which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead, half of them civilians — none of the major candidates for Prime Minister has mentioned anything about an olive branch.

Major candidates have stressed that no negotiations over Gaza’s borders will take place until Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, a young IDF soldier captured in a cross-border raid in 2006. Israel launched a blockade against Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory from Fatah security forces in 2007. Without the flow of building materials across Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel, reconstructing hundreds of demolished homes and government buildings will be all but impossible.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, of centrist Kadima, was a prime architect of the recent assault on Hamas. Before the Gaza assault, Israel’s right wing decried the cabinet’s paralysis in the face of sustained rocket attacks on southern towns like Sederot and Ashkelon, and many here suspect that Livni launched the offensive in a cynical attempt to appease adversaries and woo hawks in the run up to elections.

In current polls, Livni is running a close second behind Likud’s famously hawkish leader and one-time Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, of left-leaning Labor, co-architect of the Gaza offensive, has dropped to a distant fourth in the polls, while Avigdor Lieberman, of far-right Yisrael Beiteinu, or “Israel is Our Home,” has rallied his way past Barak and into contention.

Netanyahu and Lieberman have no blood on their hands from the recent operation — but dovish they are surely not.

Netanyahu shot to the top of the polls after spinning the Gaza offensive as an abortive failure. Scoffing at Israel’s unilateral ceasefire, he vowed, “the next government will have no choice but to finish the job.”

Lieberman founded Yisrael Beiteinu as a platform for swelling numbers of Russian immigrants who felt marginalized by Israeli government and society.

Israel is home to some one million Russian immigrants, roughly a seventh of the population, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recruit heavily from the pool of recent arrivals.

Lieberman’s brutal lack of subtlety in his approach to Hamas appeals to military hard-liners and nationalists who believe the death knell of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process sounded long ago.

In a speech to university students during the recent offensive, Lieberman blustered, “We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II.”

He went on to tacitly recommend the use of nuclear weaponry to make the military reoccupation of Gaza “unnecessary.”

With right-wing Likud poised to capture between 25 and 27 of 120 seats in the Knesset, and extreme-right Yisrael Beiteinu forecast to win as many as 18, the strongly conservative governing coalition that will inevitably emerge after Tuesday’s election — no matter who becomes Prime Minister — promises new fears and frustrations for all Palestinians.

Yousri Al-Ghoul, an employee of the Hamas Ministry of Culture and a former schoolteacher, disagrees with Sharafa — in his view, no Israeli politician holds a shred of promise for Gaza, but some are worse than others.

According to Al-Ghoul, the likelihood of a Likud-led Knesset with Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm is a more alarming prospect than a Kadima or Labor government.

“Netanyahu talks tough about fighting Hamas and starting the bombing again,” said Al-Ghoul, “but the real problem is the settlements, and the war against Hamas is just a distraction.”

Al-Ghoul, 28, currently studying for a Masters Degree in Middle East politics from Al-Azhar University in Gaza City, fears that “Netanyahu will expand the settlements in the West Bank and bring the settlers back to Gaza.”

In 2005, Netanyahu resigned his post as Finance Minister in fierce opposition to President Ariel Sharon’s Gaza Disengagement Plan, which led to the withdrawal of settlers and IDF troops from the territory. Old grudges die hard, and if Netanyahu’s campaign rhetoric about full support for settlers in the West Bank and Golan is any indication of his plans for Gaza, Al-Ghoul and his fellow Gazans surely have cause for alarm.

Slouched in his chair at Popeye Coffee Shop, three blocks from the ravaged hulk of the Hamas Legislative Building, Said Sharafa draws a bleak picture of Gaza’s internal political landscape.

“There is no political freedom here. Hamas can arrest you or shoot you in the legs if you disagree with them.” Asked about Fatah’s presence in Gaza, he said, “Fatah is hiding, and even if they weren’t, they’re all corrupt anyway.”

On the eve of what will almost certainly be an ice age in the long chronology of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Gazans like Sharafa feel that their own political parties have frozen Palestinians out of the discussion.

“Hamas will not recognize the state of Israel, so Israel calls them a terrorist organization and refuses to talk. Fatah talks, but what have their agreements gotten us? Checkpoints and settlements.”

The future is too daunting for Sharafa to hold much hope.

“If DHL could get me out of here, I would go,” he said. For now, however, like all 1.5 million Gazans, Sharafa will remain trapped within Gaza’s physical and political boundaries. –Elliott D. Woods traveled to Gaza on a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=91