Gaza Diaries: A Western View From the Inside

Update

2009-11-24T08:42:00.002+02:00

On January 2, 2009, The American International School in Gaza was destroyed by the IDF during its winter campaign against Hamas. Yet the school survives. They are not meeting in another location attempting to continue the education to Gaza's children.

Still a Target

2007-04-24T10:59:00.000+03:00

If you haven't heard, even though the western teachers are no longer in Gaza, the school is still targeted because of American in its name. On Saturday morning, April 21, barely more than a year after militants attacked the school in search of westerners to kidnap, once again armed men entered the campus. At 4:00 in the morning, they overpowered the night guards, soaked the bottom floor of the building with petrol, set three explosive devices and destroyed major parts of the ground floor (the principal's office, cafeteria and reception areas). Once again cretins with some crazed ideological agenda have tried to destroy something positive in Palestine.

I thought that I was finished with the blog, but apparently (as I am learning lately) once Gaza gets in your blood, you can never escape.

Gaza West

2006-10-04T11:20:00.000+02:00

Let the games begin again. I debated with myself long and hard about whether I should start another blog, especially since I am still so involved in writing about Gaza. The answer finally came to me after I got word at school that we were getting a day off at the end of the week in celebration of the Egyptian victory of the Israelis in 1973. Victory?! I think that I'll scrammble for my history book. (This year I'm teaching history.) Okay, how stunned was I when I found that the 1973 War (the one that they're claiming victory in) was nowhere to be found! Amazing! No wonder these kids are so easily fooled. Even the history textbooks used in the American school (written in America, published in America and sold in America) does not have the true history of the region that they live in.

Okay God, I get your point. "Let the truth be told though the heavens fall." Let the games begin again.

See you at the new address: cairo-diaries.blogspot.com

The End

2006-04-13T06:57:00.000+03:00

Well folks, thats about it. I'm back in the United States. I'm sure that I'll give a few updates here as I write the book. Hopefully, those of you who I've heard from over the months will continue to keep in touch and keep giving me feedback. It has been great debating, discussing and deliberating over the situation in Palestine.

May the God of Abraham bring peace to all of his children.

Refugee Status

2006-04-03T17:05:00.000+03:00

For those of you that have been wondering, I am currently safe and enjoying (not) refugee status in Cairo, Egypt. The future of the school is still very much in doubt. As an American, the prospects of me returning to Gaza in the near future are very slim. The American Consulate has said no, the umbrella organization for the school has said no, and the part of my brain that holds my sanity is saying no.

On that note, the two years in Gaza has turned into just a short nine months, but the book has been started. I'll keep the updates to the site going until the last chapters have actually been written, but it looks like that won't be far off. I'll keep writing, you keep reading.

Fill up the mailbox and the comments areas. I'll get answers out to everyone.

Why taking taxis is safer!!!

2006-03-21T16:41:00.000+02:00

Here we go again, more evidence that idiocy reigns supreme. Israelis security caught ten men in a van along with the explosives destined for a suicide bombing. (Click here for the full story.) Fun times since I was just on that road a few hours before and was about to get back on it again before I found out what had happened.

All I ask is for just a little bit.

2006-03-19T01:11:00.001+02:00

Please read the answer to the comment I left for sp in the last blog entry. There are a lot of things that I'm feeling right now. There are a lot of things that I want to put here right now. Most of them however would not be constructive and would most probably add to the hard feelings on both sides. I'm sure that when I do write something about how I feel, there will be those that will still find it harsh. So be it. The rage I feel could fill volumes; but the only weapon I have are my words, sapientia mundus regatur (little wisdom rules the world).

Reason for Silence

2006-03-18T19:41:00.000+02:00

Well blog readers, we are out of Gaza and no one knows when we will be going back in. There has been a mass exodus of westerners out of the Strip because of what has happened. Along with the mass kidnappings, an armed force of terrorists attacked the school.

We had word early on Tuesday (March 14th) that there might be a problem due to the Israeli capture of the six Palestinian militants from the jail in Jericho, so it was decided that school would be turned out early. We had the kids out for the buses, but two of the buses were late so about half of the kids were still sitting on the edge of the soccer field waiting. I heard shots being fired just as one of the Israeli drones went overhead, so I thought that someone was just shooting at the drone, but then I saw the security at the top of the hill running toward the shots. Then the shots started going overhead and we started to herd the children back to the building. As I ran to the building, I saw someone with his arm around one of the teachers; I mistook him for one of the security forces people until I was about 15 yards from him. He was holding the teacher hostage while the real security was advancing on him. I took the kids that were with me and got behind something for cover.

About that time, one of the other teachers started yelling for the kids and I to pull back behind the generator shed about 60 yards or so behind us, so with gunfire still going off, another teacher and I pulled the kids back behind the building. Almost immediately, one of the security guys and one of the Palestinian teachers ran out to us screaming for us (the two western teachers) to come with them to safety. I told them to take Stephen since I would not be automatically picked out as westerner and I was the only one left with the kids. But they came right back after they got him in the building and were ordering me to come with them. When I refused, the older high school boys started yelling at me to get to safety and that they would take care of the younger children. So the security guys and I made the sprint for the building through middle of the fight. Unknown to us, about 10 of the militants had gotten into the building, so we spent the first few minutes hiding in the building, a few teachers with students in rooms spread all over the school, waiting for the security forces to retake the building.

When the militants started to leave, they grabbed two of the other teachers (two Australians that they thought were Americans). When two of the Palestinian staff tried to prevent them from leaving with the teachers, the militants shot them. It took about 20 minutes for the security forces to retake the building. During that time, the American Consulate in Jerusalem was on the phone to me every few minutes getting updates. They immediately liaised with the Palestinian Authority to get the four Americans out as soon as possible, but by the time they were ready to go, ALL of the western teachers were ready to be taken out (with all of the foreign embassies getting their people out).

We were taken out the back way to avoid the militants who were trying to cut off the route to the Erez Crossing. Even when we got there, things did not calm down. The UN contingent was just behind us and were stopped before they got to the crossing and had to be freed by the security forces. We crossed over to wait on the release of the two kidnapped teachers. As soon as they were through the crossing, the Israelis immediately started to pound the hell out of Gaza.

The upshot is, there has been a mass exodus of westerners out of Gaza. Even western women who are married to Palestinians are no longer safe. The militants even tried to kidnap a woman who has been living in Gaza 15 years and is married with kids. Even she is not safe there now.

I don't know what this will mean for the school next year, but at the moment we're about to meet to talk about what’s going to happen next. I will keep you posted.

The Guns of NavaSharon

2006-03-01T10:50:00.000+02:00

BOOM!!! And again I say, BOOM!!!

Operation Northern Thunder

2006-02-28T12:32:00.000+02:00

The Israelis call it Operation Northern Thunder. Amazing how that name is so apropos to what it actually sounded like when their missiles, mortars or tank shells hit the ground near the school. For about a week we have lived with the constant sound of shelling. It didn’t matter where you were in Gaza, you could hear the shelling going on near the borders. There were a few nights where the shelling sounded like it was right outside. I know that I have repeated it often, but its amazing what you’ll get used to if you’re put in the right situation. We've had nice dinners during the shelling. We held final exams for our students during the shelling and some of us have even had barbeques while being serenaded by explosions. The roof of the apartment building has become the place to be at night during the shelling. On a clear night we can see the shells exploding across the not so distant landscape.

Erez is even more fun, since we can hear the shells on the outbound and then hear them hit. Yet, I’m still trying to figure out how this is going to help the Israelis gain peace. So this is just a question in the wind, “How does the violence and deprivation suffered by the innocent citizens of Gaza help to gain even the remote possibility of peace?” Along with that question I would like to send a direct message to the decision makers in Israel, “Your bombs and explosions are not changing any minds on this side of the green line, only entrenching them.”

Get this, I’m complaining and I get to escape this place on the weekends. Damn, I must be a spoiled westerner.

The Importance of Cookies

2006-02-28T10:05:00.000+02:00

Never forget the importance of cookies!! After over a month, imprisoned in our apartments, let out ONLY with an escort, it is the small things, the minute things, that we find when we’re out in our class field trips (also known as ‘the shopping pack’, ‘the crazy teachers make bigger kidnapping targets consortium’, ‘the pseudo-safety out of the house essentials grabbing traveling group’, etc. etc, etc………you get the picture), that keep some of us hanging on to our sanity. The longer this goes on, the more unbalanced the bulk of us get. Just the need to sit in a place and have a coffee without the rest of the pack surrounding you becomes an absolute need. I know and understand completely why Marlene Dietrich wanted to be alone (or at least to have the ability to exclude all but the nearest and dearest from her living space).

But for some of us, it is something as small as a brand of chocolate chip cookies from home. It was amazing to see the excitement caused by one package of cookies. Who am I to judge? If I found a can of Dr. Pepper in Remal Supermarket (if you could see the place you’d fall out laughing at the humor of this place calling itself super), the people in the store would probably wonder why I’d screamed and passed out on the floor.

So, to keep this Texas boy from a homicidal rampage, brought on by the sheer tediousness of tower imprisonment, I have a few demands. And here they are (not in order of importance):

Dr. Pepper!! (Come on guys, if you can sneak in qassam parts, you can surely get in a few cans of Texas water)
Ben and Jerry’s
More books!
A&W (What good is vanilla ice cream without the lord of root beers)
God!!! Doesn’t anyone make a respectable pizza in this place!!!
And finally…………..Bernadette Peters (I’m sure the Israelis would coordinate that and yes people, I know that dates me, but what can I say, some women never lose it!)

I will accept these demands in full OR a substantial amount of cash (however, if the powers that be choose the cash option, it must be in an amount that will balance my need for relief). To those in charge, get together, get gathering and start delivering!

Addendum: At the writing of this entry, I didn't know what brand the cookies were....now I know!!! They're Pepperidge Farm!!! And DAMN they're good!!!

Here you go Ari

2006-02-20T21:09:00.000+02:00

I was asked to post this from Ari's Blog concerning Paradise Now. You know how much I push people to see this movie. This is the first positive comment I've seen concerning the movie from someone on the other side of the green line. Pay Ari's blog a visit.

Weekend Furlough

2006-02-18T19:45:00.000+02:00

I spent the weekend in Jerusalem. Every time I go over and stay a few days it amazes me that I’m only about an hour from Gaza. Last night I spent time sitting on the balcony of my room in the hostel looking down on the people in Zion Square, marveling at the freedom of movement that I had. Nothing stopped me from sitting in there with my computer trying to get the WIFI connection that feeds Ben Yehuda Street. If I’d had a working battery on my computer, I could have sat down on the pedestrian mall made up by Ben Yehuda and surfed to my heart’s content. My friend in Jerusalem seem to think that I’m afraid to take the bus but that’s not the case. (The reason that I tend to take taxis is that I don’t know the Jerusalem bus system well enough to get exactly where I’m going most of the time.) Riding the buses is not a frightening thing for me (at the moment at least). I guess that I just get a little hyper-vigilant, which I’m sure that is something that is common in Israel among the bus riding public.

Jerusalem and Tel Aviv don’t have the feeling of cities under siege that people in the West seem to think that they have. I feel infinitely safer walking the streets of Jerusalem and riding its buses than I do in Houston, Oakland or Boston, EVEN with the terrorist threat that hangs overhead. I still have a better chance of getting struck by lightening than having to deal with terrorism, even here in Israel/Palestine.

People of the Book?

2006-02-15T15:13:00.000+02:00

This was sent to me yesterday from a friend in Jerusalem:

Dear Friends:

I have just received a call from Jerusalem and Gaza informing me that this morning we have received another very serious threat. Few masked and armed militants distributed fliers around the area where the Bible Society's centre is located in Gaza this morning. The flier included the following:

1. A threat to the landlord that if he does not evict us by the 28th of Feb they will blow up the whole building

2. A warning to the tenants in the building that they should leave before that date if we are still there

3. A warning for us that we should completely close down our operation in Gaza and not to try to relocate as we are being watched closely

4. Accusations that we spread a doctrine against Islam and that we are a Crusaders' evangelistic operation supported by the Crusaders' West

5. A strong worded warning about their seriousness proved by the bomb which they blew up at the door of the Bible Society last week.

I immediately asked on of my colleagues, a Christian Palestinian, what she knew about it. Last night, she called the Bible Society to confirm it and has found out that it is entirely true. This is going to be a true test for the new Hamas led government. Will they be representatives of ALL Palestinians, or will they head down the road to becoming a religious theocracy? From what we’re hearing in Gaza, they’re going to try to have it both ways; letting the religious wackos threaten and coerce here in Gaza, while leaving the West Bank to its freer ways. How they expect this to work I’ll never know. However, if they fail to stand up for the religious rights of their own citizens, the message is clear, “Christian Palestinians would have it better living under Jewish rule and protection.”

The Sound of Distant Thunder

2006-02-15T14:43:00.000+02:00

After one week of shelling I’m barely actually hearing the explosions anymore. I’m amazed that the point hasn’t been made yet. I’m sure that if they wanted to, the Israelis could just broadcast loudly throughout the Gaza Strip, “for every qassam that falls on us; we will send three tank shells (mortars, missiles, whatever represents the artillery of the day) to you.” Although I’m sure that this wouldn’t help in the long run, at least that would be out there in the rhetoric cloud that floats constantly over this southern Meggido. Last night and most of today I experienced my first real thunderstorm in Gaza. Strange how you sit there for a little while trying to determine whether what you just heard was shelling, an outbound but failed qassam, or thunder (today it was mostly thunder). No wonder that after six years of this Palestinians don’t even look up when they hear an explosion. That could be the answer to why the Israelis believe that the sonic booms are necessary. It’s just a way to get the jaded Gazan attention.

Well Said!!!

2006-02-14T17:45:00.000+02:00

Well said!!!! Get to this page and read someone that is right on the point. Of course, those that most need the message aren’t going to get it. Although I disagree with Ms. Darwish’s politics in general, sometimes you just have to call it as it is.

Nonie Darwish Article from The Telegraph (London)

Take that trip to Blockbuster!!!

2006-02-11T19:47:00.000+02:00

I have a movie reference for you. Does anyone out there remember who Snake Plissken was? If you don’t remember, I can tell that you aren’t a B movie fan. You know the movies, the ones that Kurt Russell specialized in during the 80’s. Why would I be writing about early 80’s B movies? EASY…….I’M LIVING ONE!!! Escape from New York to be exact; (thus the Snake Plissken reference)! For those of you who still don’t get it. Escape from New York was about a sane man who was dropped on Manhattan Island. The island had become a futuristic super max prison that made Alcatraz look like day camp. There were no guards, no law, and no organized society, except for that created by the inmates.

If you want to imagine Gaza, go down to Blockbuster and rent yourself a copy of Escape from New York. Now that Erez has been closed again and I can't get out of the place, I’m quickly finding a great affinity for Snake, our erstwhile hero. But he was a little luckier than I am………..at least he was well-armed. Tomorrow, I think I’ll check on changing that.

Okay, okay…….don‘t get excited, its only hyperbole. I’ll be satisfied with just being armed. I’ll work on the ‘well’ some other day.

SNOW DAY!!!

2006-02-09T17:19:00.000+02:00

I feel sorry for all of my colleagues that I left in Houston. They only get a snow day about once in a generation. When I left for Gaza, I thought that my chance at getting a snow day was even more remote. How was I supposed to know that there is a Gaza equivalent!! This morning the phone tree was enacted at about 6:00am (thank you Ryan). We were told that there was no school today because the P.A. Security forces had not been paid - an instant recipe for disorder in the streets. So there……….a Gaza snow day!! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!! Hmmmmmmmm……..sounds like a song.

The Calm Version!

2006-02-08T11:11:00.000+02:00

Okay, I’ve got the message. I usually let several people see the article that I plan to put on the page. They do several things for me. First, they proofread for me (hey, even English teachers are prone to grammar errors when they’re typing on the fly) and second, I get a small sampling of opinion on what I’m putting out there. On this occasion, I have been told by no greater authority than the woman that feeds my children that I might need to rethink publishing it to the blog. Personally, I think that it’s great, a little strongly worded, but still great. But who am I to judge. Therefore, you’ll get a watered-down version of how I feel about the protests that have erupted following the revelation that MONTHS ago a Danish newspaper ran cartoons which depicted the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH-better safe than sorry). But before that, let’s get a little Gaza update. (Don’t take away my English teacher credentials, I’ll stay on task.)

Yesterday I sat by my classroom window watching the Israelis ‘getting even’ for the steady diet of qassams being sent their way (which of course the senders claim are in retaliation for IDF killings of those Israel calls terrorists). For most of the day, the IDF shelled the ridge about two hundred meters from the school. It was a completely surreal experience. I sat there watching Palestinian workers tending the strawberry field right in the front of the school as the shells hit the ground just over the ridge from where they were standing. There was even a time when several of them walked up to the top of the hill to watch. If that wasn’t strange enough, those of us from the protected West have grown so used to the battlefield that is Gaza, that we kept teaching without paying it much attention (even when students and teachers in the far end of the hall could hear the qassams on the outbound). It is amazing what you can get used to.

Now what does that have to do with the cartoons? There is an incredibly easy answer to that question. Here you have a nascent nation (inshallah), with a newly elected government which the entire world sees as proven terrorists. They’re being shelled daily by their incredibly more militarily powerful neighbor. They have a fifty (50) percent unemployment rate. The disparity between rich and poor is a huge gulf. Every idiot and his brother is walking around with an automatic weapon. AND YET, the first internationally recognized thing these fledging leaders of government do is to hold a rally at which they condemn another nation for allowing freedom of expression. They allow other idiot factions amongst them to threaten to kidnap the few Westerners who brave the danger of working in this hell, in order to assuage their insulted little being. All of this because ONE guy, in ONE country drew a few cartoons?! Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the cartoon(s) were disturbing to adherents of Islam. But the response has been totally unwarranted. As a former (and present) resident of several of the third world backwaters where these protests have occurred, believe me, I know that that these people have a laundry list of problems that are hugely more important about which to protest. So, my message to them would be; Try protesting that your governments don’t educate your children. Try protesting that most of your economies are still mired in the 14th century (largely due to the fact that huge quantities of your national GDP’s find its way into the pockets of the ruling elite). Try protesting the fact that your people are still subject to deprivations created almost entirely of problems instigated by the stupidity of your own leaders. What should be insulting to you is NOT that some idiot decided to taunt the Moslem world with a cartoon, but that your leaders used your righteous anger at your hideous condition to create an entirely senseless, foolish, impotent orgy of rage that does nothing but cause the deaths of fellow Moslems.

As a Westerner, with the inbred biases of years of Western schooling, I can tell my Eastern friends that you just don’t get it. No one controls an individual in the West. We do whatever the hell we want to do. We don’t care who we insult. Committing sacrilege is the point. It is the through the committing of that sacrilege that we MAKE our point. That is entirely the point of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Without this right, there would be no democracy and without democracy the West would be just like the bulk of the “Islamic world”, a reactionary, might-makes-right, tribal, revenge oriented societal hell. If my choices are the West with its occasional insults or the poverty-stricken, religiously over-zealous, mobs of the East, believe me when I tell you, I’ll have absolutely no problem living in the freedom of the West where all I have to worry about is having my religious beliefs insulted every once in awhile.

Now for those of you who would like to see the article that I have been told that I can’t publish………..let me know. After you have been screened for security, emotional stability and the ability to understand sarcasm, I'll then consider whether you're stable enough for me to forward it to you.

One Month Later!!!!

2006-01-20T12:50:00.000+02:00

I know, a month between posts is a little over the top. It's not that I have been shirking my duty or anything, it's just that I've been away from the action. But this post is to catch everyone up to the happenings before I left Gaza and what has greeted me upon my return.

The last week of school was the week from hell. Travel restrictions, shelling by the Israelis, idiots firing qassams EVEN IN DAYLIGHT.............you name it, it was happening. To top it off, our principal and vice-principal were kidnapped on the last day of school, the ultimate Gaza experience you can say. They were held for about eight (8) hours before they were let go. A group claiming to be part of the Palestinian Force for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility, but the PFLP was really quick to say that it wasn't them. Poor kidnappers. They thought that they had a couple of Americans. Imagine their surprize when they found out that they had an Australian and a Dutchman. I teased Brian afterwards, asked him if they were ready to trade him for a biscuit when they found out that he was Australian.........LOL.

Around the first of January (after hearing that some idiot group had destroyed the UN Club, stupid bastards, can't stomach the idea that someone, someplace might be having a sinful good time), we were informed that school was going to be suspended until February 5th. But because of the nearness of my ticket and the fact that I was meeting a new teacher coming into Tel Aviv, I kept my original plans.

I returned to a very subdued Gaza. It seems that people are on pins and needles, awaiting the coming elections on the 25th (one of the main reasons that school has been suspended). I spent about three days in my apartment, doing delivery food for the most part, but I did get into the streets a little. The changes in the feel of the street are subtle, but very noticable. Once, the taxi I was in was stopped by a group of teenage boys who had erected a makeshift checkpoint where they were demanding a toll from each car that passed. Another group of boys were stopping cars to warn them about the first group. My driver just went another direction, but when we came out near Al Diera, the first group of boys was getting busted by the PA Security, but there was a lot of discussion (Arab style) since they didn't want to give up there little business.

To be continued............

Damn These Guys are Good!

2005-12-18T13:11:00.000+02:00

Thursday night either the IDF (with shelling) or the IAF (from an F-16) showed just how accurate they are. There are only a few roads that les frères de qassam can use to get into the northern part of Gaza in order to fire their little toys into Israel. We use one of those roads in order to get to school in the morning. BUT, we won't be using it for awhile it would seem (I don't have a lot of confidence that the PA will get the repair crews on the job in a hurry). The Israelis took out the road in such a perfect way that the crater stretches JUST from one side of the road to the other.

A lot of my friends ask me why I'm not afraid here, dealing with the constant Israeli strikes. One more time; I never see them, only hear them. These guys hit exactly where they aim. As long as I don't join Hamas (and have them proclaim me the leader) I'll stay safe.

How Can They Not Get It???

2005-12-12T10:56:00.000+02:00

"The movie put the whole blame on Israel and uses film tools to create empathy and understanding to the bombers motives. Israelis are only portrayed as a military threat. The civilian victims of the bombings are not even seen in the movie and as a result the act of suicide bombing is portrayed as nothing more than a harmless, sterile revenge fantasy"

----Eldad Z. Bek, Film Critic of the Israeli Newspaper, Yediot Aharonot in his review of Paradise Now

Okay, how can you not get it? Why would the movie only show the Israelis as a military threat? Dear Israeli populus, open up your eyes. To the mass of Palestinians, your military might is all that they see! Living down in Gaza, my students are amazed at the pictures that I show them of my trips outside. They don't believe that "Palestine" looks so modern on the other side of the fence. But its not like this should surprise you. When I show my pictures of Gaza to Israelis, they are amazingly surprised that there is anything but rubble in the streets. The are surprised by the nice buildings, the greenery and the normality. Neither side knows enough about the other to fill a short pamphlet. If the only real face that you show the Palestinians is the one standing behind a gun, don't act surprised if that's the one on which they focus.

There's No One to Talk To.

2005-12-11T07:46:00.000+02:00

Tel Aviv - I went to see Paradise Now. Never before have I seen a movie affect an audience as profoundly as this minimalist Palestinian directed movie. At the end of the movie, the credits rolled without music or fanfare of any kind. For the first two to three minutes of those credits, not a soul stirred nor spoke. The audience just sat there in stunned silence. One person stood to leave and the rest of us then followed like lemmings, but still, there was not a sound. People left the theatre as if they were leaving a gravesite; silent, reverent and stunned by loss.

If the chance presents itself, you need to walk, run or crawl to your nearest theatre when this film is offered. It will damage your soul when you see it, you will leave the theatre, with a sinking feeling in your spirit, wondering how this could possibly be going on in a civilized world. But knowing that, get to the movie, and deal with the soul damage later. Dealing with that damage is part of the experience. In the film, the director does not take a stand pro or con, he leaves that to the audience. It will create an argument in your soul, how do you balance the true horror of suicide bombing with the totally ordinary people that carry it out. It will challenge you. It will horrify you. It will change you. There is no way that you can be the same after the experience. The silence that it invokes at the end is the beginning of the discussion. Paradise Now is a must see movie for anyone interested in understanding all sides of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Before I got into the building to see the movie, I got into a discussion with an Israeli lady. She asked me the same question that seems to be the focus of all Israelis actually in favor of peace with the Palestinian, "Who do we talk to in order to get peace?" I answered her with the same answer that I always give. "There is actually no one to talk to you." The Israelis are deluding themselves in their vain search for the one group that they can talk to, the one person that they can talk to that will give them chance for peace with the Palestinians. Even the erstwhile great leader of the Palestinians, Yaser Arafat, did not actually have the proxy of the entire Palestinian people. The Palestinians are too tribal, too fractured, too focused on the small picture to really be counted as a ONE people in search of a nation.

Does that make me sound like I believe that the situation is hopeless? Probably. At this point I would say that the situation is hopeless. The Israelis do not have a real partner for peace, since there is not one group that they can talk to which can guarantee that the entire "cabal Filistini" will refrain from committing acts of terror against Israel, especially since there are large numbers among the Palestinians who will only be satisfied when the entire population of Jews have moved their State to Brooklyn. Yes Virginia, the situation is hopeless, unless the Palestinians go through a transformation that borders on fantasy. They must realize that their chances at statehood hinges on the ability to look past the internecine squabbles in which they are so prone to engage and they must realize that they must be Palestinian first, above all other.

Therefore Israel, mighty Israeli, your peace does not in the long run depend on anything that you do. It depends on a fantasy, the fantasy of Palestinian unity. Just like the Islamic Nation, the Arab Nation, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, it is something that just does not exist. There is no one out here for you to talk to.

But I Haven't Seen George Clooney Yet!

2005-12-05T09:21:00.000+02:00

Gaza City - Once again the weirdness of Gaza has opened my eyes to the myriad possibilities of third world entertainment. Now realize, that entertainment doesn't always have to mean something that is funny, informative, or even helpful in combating boredom. Sometimes the entertainment value just comes from the fact that you can sit back and say......'Damn, I didn't know that people still acted like this on this side of the 19th century.' I was starting to rest again, thinking that Gaza was becoming (dare I say it)............normal. The pseudo-detente that exists between the Jews and Arabs had lulled me into a sense of calm. But just when I was just about asleep, Gaza goes and creates its own version of "the perfect storm," the convergence of two events that makes me again realize that when I cross the boundary at Erez, I'm not only traversing space, but time itself. I enter a medieval world of family fueds and tribal retributions. AND if I were ever to forget, Gaza will jerk me back to my senses. Witness the last couple of days.

First, when we arrived back after the weekend of taking it easy in Haifa (school-sponsored trip) we were told that we couldn't use the usual route home from Erez, as two Palestinian families were engaged in a dispute. As we walked through the tunnel going from the Israeli side to the Palestinian side, we could hear small arms fire in the distance. Hey, but so what, situation normal in Gaza. We didn't find out until the next day WHY they were fighting. It seems that there was a car-donkey cart collision. Yeah, you read it right............a CAR.....DONKEY CART..........collision. An argument insued, it escalated to shooting, then basically into a full-scale battle between the two families. From what we're hearing, there have been somewhere between 9-11 fatalities and apparently, its not over.

Second (اتاني), once again, a few idiots with home chemistry sets decided that they would lob their latest creations towards the Israelis. Now of course, the chances of them actually hitting something with these HMR's (homemade rockets) were slim to none. In fact, thats what they hit..........nothing. So, in quick retaliation, the Israelis launched rockets attacks on northern Gaza and with deadly accuracy, they hit their targets, empty parking lots. Of course, this sends a basic message. 'You fire some, and we'll fire some. Now we're even.' But for the fact that this "strike" was accompanied by the return of the hated sonic booms, who the hell cares..

So there you go, the Gaza Strip Perfect Storm, the convergence of retaliation and retribution once again bringing on waves of no-damn-sleep for the innocent bystander. But that's entertainment!!!.

Addendum: Last night, the IDF decided to retaliate a little more, and with deadly accuracy, they killed the Palestinian Unknown Soldier Memorial statue. Damn these guys are good!

(Still to come, post and pictures from the Haifa trip. As soon as my laptop comes back from the shop.).

Covered

2005-11-30T20:30:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, prose isn't fluid enough. Things just have to go down in a different form. I was thinking about how mundane even the exotic can get after being around it for awhile. I was once told that you would know when you were in the middle east too long when you started to judge the beauty of a woman just by the beauty of her eyes. But, can the realization that the mystery isn't there all the time change the attraction...............who knows.

Covered

She does not wear that at home you know.

That gossamer veil,
Her face, covered,
Hidden
concealed from the world.

Revealing only her striking eyes
Two dark pools
drawing you deep into the abyss,
void,
unknown passions
black lined temptations, silently
summoning,
snaring

A forbidden lure
secretly calling
from a face, shaped by desert generations
the mystery of desert heat,
a desert heart
secreted 'neath silk allure
Like Victoria's
secret
do
the secrets
of an
Arab princess
Promise the passions of depths
Unseen.
Untouched.

But

She does not wear that at home you know

Laughter is Good for the Soul!

2005-11-28T12:25:00.000+02:00

Yahoo News: Palestinian police and security services are today starting a security campaign to uphold the rule of law in central Gaza," interior ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khussa told AFP Sunday

The campaign, which will start in Deir al-Balah and neighbouring areas, will be extended to the southern city of Khan Yunis next week and after that, to Gaza City and to Rafah, which lies on the southern border with Egypt.

"By the end of December, the campaign of imposing law will be completed and will put an end to all illegal activities," Khussa said, mentioning car theft, weapons and drug smuggling, and illegal construction on government land. (Nov. 27, 2005)

I am definitely happy that I was not eating or drinking anything when I read this article. I probably would have choked to death laughing. Recap. Go back and reread the article which heads this commentary. The Palestinian Authority is going to crack down on crime on lawlessness in Gaza. In other words, they are going to deal with the radical related kidnapping, gun-toting and internecine conflicts arising out of the tribal nature of the Palestinian people.

Now remember; this is the same group that said that they were going to disarm everyone who was not a member of the official police forces of the Palestinian Authority (because, according to Abu Mazen, the Palestinian people must be represented as One People, One Nation, and One Gun). Now those of you that have been loyal readers of these pages, will remember the description of the three hour gun battle between members of Hamas and the P.A. police forces (see the entry from Oct. 3, Thou wilt not take the beach road!). Those three hours were brought to you courtesy of the P.A. police attempting to take ONE handgun from ONE Hamas member! YET, the P.A. has announced that they are going to clean up ALL of the crime in the ENTIRE Gaza Strip AND they are going to do this BY THE END OF DECEMBER NO LESS?! But why am I laughing. They say that they have a plan………………………Okay; now I can hear YOU laughing.

Addendum!!!
When I informed our esteemed vice-principal of the blog topic, he told me that I needed to read the security update for the day. Sooooo......I read it. If I had laughed any harder, they would have had to call an ambulance. The update is as follows (verbatim-errata included):

Khan Yunis: Police stationed at the Abu Houli crossing area carrying out normal search operations stopped a car carrying an Abu Rish and Aqsa Brigade member. The two refused to show their documents and drove off. The police followed, catching up with the car when it crashed into a car from the Al-Astal family in Khan Yunis. the police again requested the personal documents but the men called friends. The Abu Rish and Al-Astal family members stole three rifles, a handgun and the police vehicle (emphasis added by blogger). They said that they would hand back the stolen items if the police paid JD8000 for the repair of the Abu Rish and Al-Astal vehicles. At 2210hrs the police paid $6000 to the Abu Rish and Al-Astal families and their weapons and equipment were handed back.

There need be no comment from this author (however, if I WERE going to comment, that comment would be; now I know how to raise a little extra Christmas cash)...............the laughing may now continue!!!

Give Me Dr. Pepper or Give Me ..................

2005-11-23T14:23:00.000+02:00

Now is the winter of my discontent……NOT made summer by these sons of Abraham. (To help the Shakespeare-ily challenged, that was a reference to Richard III Act I, Scene 1). For some reason this week I have been amazingly more restless here in the Land of Uzi. I think the Dr. Pepper cravings are starting to thrust me into madness. It is hard to believe that in this entire country of transplants, that there are no Jewish Texans. For if there are Texans, by definition there MUST be Dr. Pepper. The Texas Constitution has about 300 amendments, that must be one of them. (What do you yankees know; it could be true.) Thus, a week anon, when I have once against escaped from the archipelago of occupied (who are we kidding that this place is under the real control of the PA) Palestine, the quest for Dr. Pepper will be on. Let the grocers of Israel take notice, I cannot rest, lest I tilt my lance at the myth of "No Dr. Pepper." It exists in far flung Arab emirates; therefore it must exist in Israel.

Now those of you came here today to read my usual literary brilliance and have become upset with the topic du jour; then your order of priorities must be immediately altered. There is an order of importance given things which must be upheld in the life of any TRUE Texan and at the top of the list are 1) the Alamo, 2) Longhorn Football (unless you attended one of those lesser schools), and 3) Dr. Pepper. All other things, including geopolitics, the economy and what building you inhabit on Sunday mornings, all come tumbling after.

Therefore, Viva Texas and Remember the Dr. Pepper!!!

Up the Comments!!!!

2005-11-21T22:01:00.000+02:00

This is just going to be a short entry. Sometimes the responses that you get are more fun than the actual blogging. Everyone needs to go back to the November 17th blog entry. Read the comment left by the young Australian (at least she sounds young), then read my response. I can only hope that I continue to get these kinds of comments. This is what writing is all about. Make me earn my inflated ego.

The War of the Stamp

2005-11-20T10:01:00.000+02:00

Its time for the constant reader to celebrate. I have finished reading Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem. Those of you that want a coherent BALANCED view of the problems in the Middle East, I advise you to run out to buy yourself a copy (or run to your local keeper of publicly-owned books). It’s a little dated, being as it was finished in the late 80’s (even the update he writes is before the death of Rabin) but it is still one of the best books I have read on the conflicts in the region. Okay, now that I have shamelessly plugged someone else’s work, let’s get down to MY update.

Sometimes I forget that the reason that I said that I was going to keep this record online was so that my friends and colleagues back home could follow my exploits in the Holy Land. I have tended to go off on my rants more and more. However, today is going to be a return to the original purpose. I won’t promise NOT to rant, but I’ll keep it to a minimum.

I went on another Middle East adventure this weekend. When we arrived in the country, we were given three month tourist visas. Although the Israeli authorities know what we’re doing in Gaza, we suffer under the three month curse. Every three months we have to somehow get our visas renewed. Now, if you will, add to this dilemma the fact that there are those of us who would like to get a chance to see certain other Middle East countries, but must operate under their restrictions as well. Most notably, Syria and Lebanon will not allow anyone to enter their country who holds a passport which has been stamped with an Israeli visa…………yes I know, petty bastards. So although it is possible for one to turn in one's passport to obtain a new visa, THAT method necessitates the (shudder) stamping of the passport. I REFUSE!!!!!! Thus, with my three month permission to travel within the confines of Israel running out AND suffering from an acute case of stampophobia, I had to leave the country, re-enter, and hope that the border control officers were feeling magnanimous (as there were several teachers that ran into a wench at passport control that decided that she was going to screw with the teachers from Gaza and saddled them with ONE WEEK visas!!!).

This was the first time that I was actually traveled in Israel alone. Getting up early saved my trip. I got to the first Erez checkpoint to find it blocked. After half an hour or more sitting and waiting and watching the cars backup behind my taxi, I was recognized by one of the P.A. Officers at the barrier. He cleared my taxi through (another case of it paying to be nice to people as you never know when you’ll need them). I was the only one present when I got the actual Erez crossing. While I was in the tunnel Brian called to see where I was and to inform me that he had been told that Erez was closed and the rest of the crew had to call off their Ashkelon jaunt…………lucky me, I was halfway to freedom…………It is good to be the king. Cleared by the Erez border guards (and reminded again that my visa was expiring) I beat it to Ashkelon, caught the bus to Jerusalem and sat comfortably contemplating my good fortune, for again the stamp was being averted.

Central Bus Station (Jerusalem) – You know, it’s sometimes the clothes you wear. I was wearing an Australian cricket jersey and when I sat down after picking up food from McDonald’s, I was besieged by about twenty Jewish girls from Melbourne. Go figure. They were all students from a university in Melbourne. Their parents had let them come to Israel as a group. Of course, they got the 'Gaza is not actually hell lecture'…………those of us that live here know that this is lecture 101 when you’re visiting Israel. After class was dismissed I grabbed a taxi and made the long drive up to Sheik Hussein, to the northern most border-crossing with Jordan. It is amazing how relaxed the West Bank security is compared to that of Gaza. There were NO border guards when we entered the West Bank. It was a leisurely drive through Arab villages and past Israeli settlements. I could even see the Dead Sea glimmering in the distance. There was just a drive through checkpoint posted as we left the West Bank into Israel proper. There was no hassle at all.

As I approached the Jordan River, the magnitude of where I was was massive. Even the relative small size of the river (okay Texans, believe me when I tell you that the thing wouldn’t make a good size Texas creek) was not enough to dampen my wonder at standing on the banks of the Jordan. While checking out of Israel, I ran into another American and we shared a taxi from Sheik Hussein to Amman. And while the river might be small, the Jordan River Valley is incredible (sorry, didn’t get any pictures since my camera was in my bag in the trunk of the taxi). To shorten this up a little, let's just say:

Jordan Valley – Awesome
Amman – Awesome
Time in the city – Awesome

Got that? I won’t bore you with details. The use of hyperbole would be too tempting and may the Lord spare you from me on a hyperbolic rant.

The next day it was back into the Jordan Valley, back to the border crossing, back to the Israeli side and the attempt to get a new visa. It was time to answer the vex question; could I get my three months MINUS a stamp in my passport. It only took a thirty minute interrogation by two border guards, with whom I ended up the interrogation on a first name basis, a stop at passport control, where the girl that was questioning me listened to my reasons for being in Gaza, for not wanting my passport stamped and even genuinely smiled when I made a joke about countries not wanting me because of the stamp. She even withstood pressure from another girl who wanted to give me a hard time. And in the end...............Welcome to Israel, here’s your three month visa, and best of all…………..NO STAMP!!!

So, if you’re keeping score (and of course, you know I am) that score would be:

Traveling Gentile - 1 Israelis - 0

Short Addendum to Yesterday

2005-11-17T07:51:00.000+02:00

Addendum to Nov. 16 - I woke up this morning to an avalanche of email from Israelis, telling me that this border agreement is the thin end of the wedge; that it is the beginning of their destruction in Israel...........I stand amazed (well, actually, I'm sitting, but you get the point). Here they are, with one of the most powerful militaries (per capita) in the world, yet somehow, this is the beginning of the end. I'm sure that today, I'll get the Palestinian view as to how the agreement means nothing, and the Israelis will still be torturing them. What they need here is just TWO real leaders, a statesman for each side, both willing to step up and lead their people. But until them, I'll just sit back and enjoy the rhetoric. Its the only entertainment I'm going to be getting for awhile it seems...............hell, I live in Gaza, what else am I going to do. (Okay, okay, don't take that wrong. I love the hell out of the place. Its cheap, its historic, and where else could I get paid to sit on the sidelines in the cheap seats watching a country size version of Jerry Springer).

Welcome to the Zoo Ms. Rice

2005-11-16T21:55:00.000+02:00

Gaza City - Well Condoleezza, since I'm sure that you don't know whats actually going on in the minds of the Palestinians and Israelis that you think you helped, let me help you out. I've talked to several Palestinians today about the agreement that you helped negotiate on their behalf. Guess what babe...............the ingrates are saying that you're still an Israeli lackey and your trip didn't help anybody. And the Israelis? I got a call from one of my friends in Jesrusalem, and she was almost in tears because now the terrorist will be able to get out of their cage to attack jewish children. She wanted to know why America would sell them out like that. Welcome to the zoo Condie baby!!!.....you might feed the animals everyday, think that you're doing them a favor, you might even fool yourself into thinking that you love the animals and that they love you, but in the end, they're still caged and they still hate the hell out of you. The best thing that you could have done was to be the politician you are, land Airforce Three (or whatever number you were one this trip), express your condolences to the Jordanians, kiss a few babies, gotten back on your plane and taken your butt right back to Washington; leaving these "idjits" to clean up their own mess. Believe me, neither you nor America will get credit for anything good that MIGHT come out of this.

A Day of Epiphanies

2005-11-16T20:12:00.000+02:00

Tel Aviv - Those of you that read this on a regular basis are probably getting tired of my references to From Beirut to Jerusalem. But more and more it has been the gateway to epiphanies. Yesterday we had that day off for Palestinian Independence Day (yes, I know, but I’ve dealt with that issue already, besides, who is going to argue with a day off). I was meaning only to take a short trip to Ashkelon, but when another teacher showed up at Erez on her way to Tel Aviv, I decided to tag along. So I got to add another first to my Israel/Palestine experience, riding on the Israeli bus line. Of course, I did what I always do on a bus, I read. At every stop on the way from Ashkelon to Tel Aviv, young Israeli soldiers came aboard; some of the young ladies carrying M-16’s that appeared to be larger than they were. Just as we came to the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Friedman gave me one of those great quote moments. Even now, over thirty-six hours after reading it, the impression is still fresh; so fresh in fact that I can still remember exactly which page of the book it was written. Friedman was relating a story in which a Druse villager was showing great pride in his son for basically dropping out of school and becoming a terrorist. The incident bothered him so badly that he talked about it with a psychiatrist from the American University of Beirut.

……………I was asking Richard what kind of psychological revolution would be required to bring peace to Lebanon. Richard, part of whose job was to counsel Lebanese students whose minds had been warped by the war, just threw the question right back in my face. “When will there be peace in Lebanon?” he asked in a voice larded with cynicism. “When the Lebanese start to love their children more than they hate each other.”

EPIPHANY!!! That was it. The same could be said of the Palestinians and the Israelis. As I watched more and more infants get on the bus carrying weapons of semi-mass destruction, I flashed back to standing beside the road last Saturday watching the members of Fatah go by carrying their AK-47’s (yeah, I know…………the symbolism and contrast are very Cold War-rish). It was just another case of infants with weapons, a generation raised with a hate, by societies that have demonized ALL of the members of the other; eighteen year-old Palestinians willing to murder eighteen year-old Israelis (and vice-versa) based on the stereotypes perpetuated by their fathers and grandfathers. (I shared this epiphany with my Year 12’s. I was amazed that they were totally in agreement with me.)

The second epiphany of the day came when I was getting on the bus for the return trip last night. When we were getting on the bus to return to Ashkelon there was a young Israeli girl getting on the bus in front of me. She was wearing her obligatory green IDF uniform, but she was also carrying her backpack. On the backpack was a Care Bear. Looking like she wasn’t too many years from playing with Barbies, the State of Israel was content to hand her a weapon and set her guarding against the 1.7 million “potential terrorists” surrounding them. The state thus completes the education of its youth, teaching them to see all Palestinians as potential criminals and terrorists. Both sides, both societies completing the warping of their children in order to keep the struggle going over land that they were both promised.

The first epiphany, followed by this one in the same day only solidifies my view of both sides as people who don’t actually want peace and wouldn’t know what to do with it if it were suddenly thrust upon them. So here we stand, with another ruined generation on both sides, destined to rail against one another, lacking of men of vision, willing to lead them to a better way; with societies geared for one thing………vilifying and trying to destroy the other.

Thanks you Thomas Friedman

2005-11-14T10:54:00.000+02:00

I’m still reading that book, From Beirut to Jerusalem. More and more I’m getting to see a kindred spirit, someone that sees the Middle East for exactly what it is, a place where western logic is something that will never see the light of day. Thomas Friedman is actually giving me hope that I’m not the only American with an IQ over fifty. It still amazes me (I know that it shouldn’t) how amazingly blind the leadership of the United States is to the realities of the Middle East, given that the information needed to understand the place is staring them right in the face. I know that it’s not a lack of information. In the last seven years I have talked to State Department personnel from all over the region. They see the contradictions that make up Middle Eastern logic. I know that they transmit the facts back to their superiors in Washington. Only the truly imbecilic could ignore the realities that exist here. What is more frightening is the possibility that they may actually see the realities but, for some cynical reasoning, be ignoring them. I don’t know which one of these reasons I’d abhor more.

Because of that, with no disrespect to Edward Said, I’ll be changing the quote at the top of my page. Finally, there’s an American worth quoting in reference to Middle Eastern politics. Thank you Thomas Friedman, you have restored some of my faith in American intelligence. At least now I know that there is at least ONE correct (can’t use the word right, since some of you might take it the wrong way and think I’m getting soft) thinking American in the world besides me.

The new quote framed above was made in reference to hardcore Zionists in general and Manachem Begin in particular. While I get Friedman's point, I would further extend his description to include the vast majority of present day Palestinians as well (at least the ones that I've met here in Gaza anyway). Cloaked in their victim-hood, they forgive any terrorist inspired atrocity as long as it said to have been committed in the name of Palestinian nationalism. I have heard over and over that “Hamas protects us.” I’d like to know what they think that Hamas protects them from. Does Hamas protect them from Israeli naval power blockading their coastline? Does Hamas protect them from the indignity of being a captive population in their own land? Does Hamas protect them from the dangers of factionalized government? As far as I can see, the only things that Hamas actually protects them from are the chances of getting peace or statehood in the lifetimes of their grandchildren.

Tomorrow is “Palestinian Independence Day”, yet another myth of the Palestinians; along with the Arab Nation, the unity of the Palestinian people and a future without Israel. Until they examine themselves and the rest of the world realistically, they will stay a people without a country. Looks like the Americans are not the only ones without a rational concept of reality in the Middle East.

Follow the New Leader

2005-11-08T12:29:00.000+02:00

I have been a given something to read (Thomas Friedman's, From Beirut to Jerusalem) so that I can be more balanced in my approach to the present conflict. Sure, I’ll read the book (those that actually know me personally know that I’ll read anything as long as it has words in it) but come on…………..why would I want to be fair and balanced. I’ll leave that to FOX news (sarcasm hugely intended). I never said that I was going to be fair about what I said. In fact, I intend to be brazenly UNfair. I intend to point out with reckless abandon, the stupidity inherent in the situation, challenging the very ability of most of the people on both sides to breathe unless told to do so by some brain-dead cleric or rabbi. All I can promise is ‘veritas lux mea’, the truth enlightens me and thus, through this page, YOU will be enlightened. Besides, I’m better than any sheikh or rabbi. You’ll never have to worry about me claiming that God spoke to me. People will follow me soley because of my superior intellect…………..And this is my first marching order, learn the following truths and disseminate them throughout the land

It’s the lack of empathy. It seems that just about every person that I’ve talked to, no matter what side of the argument they’re on, has a complete lack of empathy for the common people of the other side. The reasoning of both sides is that they’re making the “other” feel what they’re feeling. The terrorist’s logic is that they’re making Israelis feel, by the only means they have, the pain that the Palestinians feel from Israeli violence toward them. And the Israelis argue that since the Palestinian population supports the actions of the terrorists, they are fair game in this game of tag. So, to be absolutely fair, let me just say this; both sides show an amazing lack of God’s divine empathy. (Yeah, I know that’s normally stated as love, but what else defines love, if not the capacity to actually feel the pain of others, a definitive proof of love of fellow man.)

I have friends that eschew religion for just that reason. They argue that religion has caused more harm to people than it has helped. But, I argue from a different perspective, that it is the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of religion that has been the reason for the pain inflicted. In the endeavor of some to create modern theocracies in the name of their one God, their leaders have forgotten the common precept of love for all. The concepts of love, fairness and justice, the very foundation of all three religions are amazingly ignored in the rush for power. That is the key. The holding of power - over land, over people and over the thoughts of the masses - is at the core of the dilemma found in not only the Middle East, but in most conflicts the world over. If you dig to core of the issue, you will find men bent on the possession of power, willing to bend the concepts of religion to their own ends. Whenever you find men speaking for God, watch your back for the heretical, fanatical followers, willing to kill in the name of insanity masquerading as faith. Unknowingly, they are furthering the acquisition of power for a immoral few, and sowing the seeds of their own enslavement.

Now English teachers, I have not left the topic, I’m still there. At one time, women could walk the streets of Gaza without worrying about whether they were wearing hijab. At one time, there were Jews that were satisfied with the fact that they had a place to call their own, who did not lust after every piece of sand from their so-called Eretz Yisrael. There was a time when the Palestinians had one voice. Men who claim to speak for God have changed all of that. If the god they serve is the god of war, then they do not serve the God of Moses and Mohammad. If the god that they serve is the god of terror, then they do not serve the God of Moses and Mohammad. If the god that they serve is the god of revenge, then they do not serve the God of Moses and Mohammad. From this day, on both sides of the Green Line, people must decide which god they serve.

Awww!!! Just When I Thought It Was One-Sided

2005-11-07T09:44:00.000+02:00

Everyday I have Yahoo send me links to all of the articles that they post concerning Gaza. They send me articles appearing in newspapers from all over the world, so I'm getting a multinational view of Gaza. For the most part, the view has been amazingly uninformed. My views on the international media have been confirmed. If you really want to know what's going on, you actually have to be living through it. I know that this is not realistic for the majority world's population, but at least the international media could put someone on the ground here who will stay here longer than it takes to jump out of a TV van, shoot some background, and flee back to Erez. This type of reporting creates an amazingly skewed view of the situation here in Gaza. Therefore it is no wonder that the rest of the world has a view of the place as some kind of "No Man's Land", where gunfights happen at high noon and law and order is only kept at the barrel of the nearest AK-47. I can forgive the rest of the world for that...................with one exception, the people living just next door.

This morning, I got my daily article update from Yahoo and found an article titled, Demons in the Skies of the Gaza Strip. Could I NOT get there fast enough to see what this was about, especially since it was an article from Haaretz, an Israeli daily. It was an editorial on the sonic booms, surprisingly the author was vehemently against them. I could have stopped reading when I got to the end of the article, it would have made my day a better one. I would have left the page thinking that there was hope, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO...........I had to start reading the comments left by readers. Let me break it down to those of you that will not follow the link to see what the hubbub is about. The comments left in reference to the article confirmed that there is a large group of Israelis who are just as freakin' brain-dead as some of the idiots that I run into here in Gaza. No wonder the concept of peace is so foreign to them. They are too busy defending absurdity, that they can't see the ridiculousness of the entire situation. Yeah, I know, I know.......there is real pain and suffering. I can see that around me everyday AND I can hear it in the voices of Israelis when I talk to them on the weekends. But come on people, obtaining lasting peace would be easy. It would just take the both sides dealing with reality and both sides learning just three things.

For the Israelis:

Not every Palestinian you see is a terrorist! And punishing them like they are only breeds more of what you're trying to avoid.
Just because you have the biggest toys in the area is no reason to use them for every situation. A military solution is seldom the best one.
Be realistic, your government has acted in egregious ways (yes, I know, a lot of times they had provocation), so stop trying to justify ALL that it does as an answer to terrorism.

*Yes, I know that I didn't mention the settlements in the West Bank, but I shouldn't have to mention them. This is not an issue that the Palestinians should have to argue again. The UN, World Court, and just about every other organization that deliberates over international law, has deemed them illegal. They were founded illegally, built illegally, and still sit there today, illegally. If Israel is going to live among other countries, then the idea of Eretz Israel (Israel at the size that God promised Abraham [Genesis 15:18-21]) needs to be dumped. This is NOT ancient Israel and the chances of David returning to the throne are non-existent. Tear down the settlements and move the people back into Israel proper. Its not like Israel is hurting for the space to put them.

For the Palestinians:

The right of return? Forget about it, it's not going to happen. There is no way that the Israelis are going to willingly saturate themselves in Palestinians, making themselves a Jewish minority. That was what drove them back here in the first place.
Call terrorism exactly what it is, terrorism. Not every action is justified, whatever the provocation. There is NO justification for the murder of innocents, especially children, no matter WHO does it.
Support one leadership. Medieval tribalism is NOT going to lead to a viable state. The rule of law must be the same for everyone. The time for a vengeance driven society has come and gone.

Both groups need to sit at the table willing to stomp on their own radicals instead of encouraging them to further idiocy. But then again, this could be entirely too simple a solution, since I'm starting to see that both side react out of a mentality of tit-for-tat. Whereas, to obtain peace, they would have to work from a foundation of logic, which is something that is severely lacking in this region.

Palestinian Commercial

2005-11-06T14:54:00.000+02:00

A kilo (2.2 lbs) of fresh JUMBO shrimp from the fish market...30 skekels ($6.5o)

Getting it cooked right next door...10 skekels ($2.15)

Having Palestinian Policemen seriously propose to your female walking companion...Priceless

Getting Some Peace and Quiet

2005-11-02T06:39:00.000+02:00

Tel Aviv, Israel - Spent the last weekend in Tel Aviv to escape the sonic booms (which we're now being told are no longer going to be used). I'm back here now for part of the Eid holiday. It amazes me that the people that I've met here know so little about Gaza, a place that they could be in in less than an hours drive. I have spent considerable time discussing Gaza with people that I have met at the hostel where I'm staying and they are amazingly surprized by my descriptions of Gaza. If anyone should be informed about the place, it should be the so-called enemy (Palestinian description, not mine). But enough on that tangent.

Tel Aviv is a European city in the middle of the Middle East. If you could push from your mind its actual location, you could imagine that you were in London or Frankfurt. When I showed the pictures that I'd taken of the city to my students, FIRST they wanted to know what city it was, and oooooed and ahhhed about how beautiful it was, and SECOND they were shocked when I told them that it was Tel Aviv. Most of them had never seen it. (Again amazing since its less than an hour away from the Gaza.) This was immediately followed by their comments of "and that's OUR land." I asked one of them if Tel Aviv would have been built and be that beautiful without the Jewish return...........she decided that sure it would. Hmmmmmmmmmm......................I have my doubts. I'm beginning to believe that the modern version of this conflict is borne on wings of misinformation and ignorance rather than policitical or religious ideology. Yes, I know that radical Islamist are preaching the destruction of Israel on false religious grounds, but I just have to hope that not ALL Palestinians are taken in by the contradiction that this creates in the interpretations of the Noble Qu'ran. It has bred a hatred that makes no logical sense, based on no reasonable justification, resulting in cousins blowing up cousins in the street, when the entire country (or two if you prefer) could look like this, a shining jewel on the Mediterranean.

Get The Cement Mixers Ready!

2005-10-27T05:49:00.000+02:00

The collective punishment continues. When we got to school yesterday, we found the constant sonic booms were starting to damage the building. The ceiling in front of my classroom door had collapsedn and there were significant cracks appearing in the walls of the library. It is what one would expect to see from minor earthquake damage, the only difference is that the tremors arrive via Israel's F-16's. It amazed me that those in charge of the military in Israel do not seem to have ever read a psychology book. Collective punishment only breeds more of what you don’t want, support for the guilty party that caused the problem in the first place.

But then again, after talking to my 11th graders, I’m beginning to see why they do it. There was a discussion in my class about how people should react to repression. That discussion morphed into a discussion about the situation here in the Strip. When I finally just asked if the Palestinian people actually wanted peace, over half the class fell back on their belief that the Koran says that there will never be peace. If the majority of Palestinians actually share that view then nothing the Israelis do in order to get peace will be enough and the situation is absolutely hopeless. If this is indeed the case, then my facetious solution to the problem (paving this entire region into a parking lot and saving the world the trouble) is starting to look more and more like a reasonable answer.

However, as I write this, the Israeli air force continues to attempt to sow terror among the general population by shocking their systems with sonic booms. (If you don’t think that this is a big deal, try getting no sleep for days on end, or being thrown for your bed by the vibrations in the middle of the night. Try having an explosion rip through the clear blue sky, literally taking the air out of your body. Now repeat that over three or four straight days.) I actually understand why they’re doing (I don’t agree with it, but I understand) but even I am starting to hate the pilots, since it seems that they find particular glee in spacing the explosions out to get the maximum psychological damage. (At the beginning of the first barrage a few weeks ago, an Israeli general announced that the entire Gaza population was going to pay for the rockets that were fired over the border.) So right now I’m starting to believe that the Israelis don’t actually want justice and peace, they only want to spread the psychology of revenge. If this be the case, then neither group deserves God’s Holy Land and the rest of the world needs to get those cement trucks fired up and moving in this direction. In the long run, it would save the rest of us from the being pulled into the insanity of their fratricidal idiocy.

Here We Go Again

2005-10-24T19:07:00.000+02:00

Thank you Islamic Jihad! Your idiocy gives us another reason to vote for birth control. Well, it was almost a month. A month of no television interference, a month of no sonic booms, a month of peaceful F-16 free bliss; but once again the terrorist groups in Gaza show that they can't do simple math. Qassam rockets into Israel equals Israeli F-16's into Gaza airspace. Thats simple math. Don't these idiots get it?! It amazes me that they have the brain capacity to move their damn legs. I wonder how long we'll have to endure this time because some idiot with a chemistry set decided to see if his bottle rockets would work.

The population here needs to start supporting a leadership that will put these idiots back under the rock that they sprang from.

Why Do I Have To Listen?!

2005-10-19T18:53:00.000+02:00

One of the bumper stickers that I remember prominantly from my younger days was, "Custer Died For Your Sins." Of course, these were on a Native-American reservation, but you get the point. Why do I bring this up in the middle of a blog about being in Gaza you ask? Well, let me tell you..........Imagine you're minding your own business, walking through the souk (market) looking at things that you don't really need to buy, doing a little translating here and there for some colleagues, basically just having a quiet day out. THEN..........out of the blue, one of the vendors asks you where you're from............Okay, I could lie and tell him Sudan, so I give him the truth. THEN it happens.....................you're immersed mind-numbingly deep in a diatribe about what "America" and the idiot Bush (still not dignifying him with the title President) are doing in Iraq. Can't I just have a little peace without dealing with the sins of the idiot and his friends? Can't they just focus on being angry at the Israelis and leave me to buy my two shekels worth of cardamom in peace. Lucky for me, he was speaking "fast" Arabic and I only speak "slow" Arabic, so half of what he was saying was just sailing over my head. But the half I did get wasn't nice. DAMN...........I still need the cardamom though, so here's your two shekels and call me when you have a government that makes sure that you don't get bombed by the Israelis because you have idiots in your country that don't realize that shooting bottle rockets over the frontier only brings down the wrath of the F-16's!! Earth to "spice guy"!!!!!! You have a lot worse things to worry about than what's happening in Iraq. Worry about what's going on in your own back yard (and please don't give me the line about the Arab Nation...........there is no Arab Nation).

Thus ends the stream of consciousness diatribe brought on by Arabs linking me with the idiot and his policies................One more time, I didn't vote for him (either time), wouldn't vote for him in a runoff for dog catcher and in this case, he is NOT my brother, so I definitely would have no problem NOT keeping him!

From Ashkelon to Gaza

2005-10-18T08:18:00.000+02:00

Four days gone and we’re still having it quiet, only one phone tree incident that everyone is still laughing about since most of the people were asleep and the tree turned into “I’ve got a secret.” When Ryan tried to start the tree, I actually had my phone turned off (by mistake) and a huge lot of our company was already actually asleep. Other than that, its just been a gentle ride on the tide of Gaza.

I’ve come up with the working title for my journal on the year in Gaza. When Ray and I were sitting at the train station in Ashkelon, waiting on our train to Jerusalem, I made the comment that we would know when peace had come to this land when we could actually get on the train in Gaza City. At the time I thought a title incorporating that idea would be good. So, here it is, The Last Train: From Ashekelon to Gaza. I’ve written the first paragraph, just to get the ball rolling.

The map is seemingly innocent. A casual glance tells the traveler that Israel's Highway 4 runs through the Erez frontier, continuing through Gaza City and terminating in Rafah. However, where the geo-political construct which is Israel/Palestine is concerned, maps are very rarely innocent. Since the beginning, when the fledgling United Nations divided what was left of the British Mandate of Palestine, the concepts of place, nationality, and ethnicity have been bound up in the pseudo-innocence of maps. The two peoples of this land, bound together by a shared history of struggle and mourning, look upon maps with radically divergent visions. However, it is in Jerusalem, the city devotedly called by the Moslems, Al Quds (The Holy), particularly on that miniscule plot of earth known as the Haram Al Sharif (the Temple Mount), where their views find singularity. Today, as it has for millenia, that singularity makes this entire land and consequently these two countries the Center of the World.

I know that these web entries will serve as a lot of my source materials IF I can tie them all together into something coherent.

YES!!! I know that I'm slow!!

2005-10-12T10:45:00.000+02:00

Its been awhile. For the most part there hasn't been a lot to report. I've been spending my time away from school taking a few Arabic lessons and otherwise being lazy (watching the sunsets from my roof and finding things to occupy my crazy amount of leisure time since we're on a shortened schedule for Ramadan). But, I got a gentle reminder from one of my gentle readers that I was falling down on the job, so I'll correct that fact and get back to writing.

The security situation here seems to be improving (or at least it would seem so to those of us out of the security briefing loop). The word on the ground (and in several of the media outlets) is that a group of the factions got together to condemn Hamas for their actions of late. Because of this (and Egyptian pressure), Hamas has basically calmed the heck down. One can only hope that this lasts.

One of the other perks of being here is that every person I know sends me Gaza updates. Amazing how that is, since I live here and don't see all of the rioting thats going on. The only explanation for this is that the Palestinians have conquered a major scientific frontier and perfected the science of invisibility and thousand of invisible Palestinians are indeed rioting passed my building everyday, but, without the special CIA goggles I have on back order, I just cannot see them. Don't get me wrong..............there are a few of the update senders that I appreciate (especially my two Israeli updaters, who tell me what the Israeli media is reporting). But most of the updaters are telling me how much danger I'm in..............guess what guys, I am well aware of the situation, but I love hearing from you anyway :-)

But I thought that I'd just post a few of the pictures of the things that I can see from my apartment.

I live right on the shore, right across from the fish market. Every evening we can see the little fishing vessels being towed out to sea to do the night's fishing. The Israeli rules are that they must stay within a five mile limit. At night, when you're up on the roof (or sitting at one of the beachside eateries) you can see the lights of the fishing boats all in a straight little line, winking against the dark horizon. That sight is one of the calming things about living here. It is amazing how soothing it can be to sit on the roof and just let the evening drift by into night, watching the colors transform from blue, to orange, to starlit onyx.

Lucky me, not only do I have the sea, but I have a little balcony that I can sit on in the evenings. The dream is to put something nice to sit on out there and relax with a good book in the cool of the evening. I just need to get down to the market to find something that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg, that will hold up to being left outside. Even though I live in the city, I'm lucky............from my little balcony, I can see a tree-lined street with ranks of tall, majestic palms as well as other greenery.

Those that are faithful readers, know that I have to avoid the words like, peaceful (fingers-crossed), boring (knock on wood) or tranquil (can't think of any other good luck charms). Every time I use one of those, the creek seems to rise around here. (For you none southerners, thats a reference to the saying, "Lord willing and the creek don't rise.") So, I'll just say that we're in the middle of a lull, and leave it at that.

I'll try not to leave it so long between postings again, even when its............ (whispering) boring.

Hamas on the Run?

2005-10-07T08:08:00.000+02:00

See the posts from October 3. Almost all of the factions in Palestine are condemning Hamas for its actions against Israel. This could be the beginning of a legitimate rise to statehood by the sane. If the Palestinians can police up their own crazies, Israel will have no reason to prove its manliness. One can only hope.

I’m on my way back to Ashkelon today for a little time away from the Third World. Hopefully, this will be a calm day of crossing Erez and my family resemblance to my famous cousin Osama (you guys know I’m kidding right) will not get me hassled (AGAIN) by the MAN while I’m crossing over.

The True Meaning of Islam

2005-10-06T13:36:00.000+02:00

I spent a lot of time talking to a young Palestinian yesterday. He's actually the first one that is vehemently open about his hatred for Jews. But with further discussion, I've found that he "hates" Americans, Whites, and a host of other groups. He went on to state that the Koran says that there should never be peace between the Moslems and Jews, therefore he was against peace. He also told me that Jews tried to kill the Prophet Mohammed. (At this point, I reminded him that even if that were true, the perpetrators of that alleged crime would be long dead. This didn't seem to help his disposition toward Jews.)

This is the point. It is amazing how little a great many "Moslems" know about their own religion and history. This is the reason that it is so easy for so-called "holy men" to come along and twist the true beliefs of Islam to their own purposes. He didn't realize that when Saladin rebuilt Jerusalem after defeating the crusaders, he welcomed the Jews back into the city having rebuilt their homes. Nor did he know that Caliph Omar refused to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for fear that it would then be claimed as a Moslem mosque by later followers. There is a history of respect between the religions in this region, destroyed only in the last century.

As long as a religion of peace is distorted in a way that warps the brains of the young, there will be no peace in the Middle East. This is the job of right-thinking Moslems. Palestine stands at the threshold of statehood and only Palestinians can make sure that door stays open. They cannot allow the treacherous actions of a few, as my mother would call them, jumped-up preachers*, lose them the chance to move into the fraternity of nations with all that entails.

*For all you none southerners, the term jumped-up preacher was the colloquial phrase describing men who had no real scriptural or public speaking training, but just decided that they were going to "jump up" in the pulpit and start spouting. This is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden calling himself sheikh, which is a title of honor. It is something you earn, not something you bestow upon yourself. Just like there are a few jump-up Reverends in the in the Christian west............there are a few jumped-up Sheikhs in the Moslem East. All of them should be avoided at all costs.........and their teaching ignored.

Would the real leaders of Palestine please stand up.

2005-10-03T21:15:00.000+03:00

Well, the backlash has started. Palestinian Policemen marched on the parliament today demanding that Hamas and all other radicals be disarmed. This will either mean that the PA will stand up and do what is necessary to be recognized as the true leaders of a country-to-be, OR, they will let Hamas and the other radicals drive these people down the road of no return. (Looks like the four of us who went shopping the other day were actually eye witnesses to the aftermath of the first part of the battle. We had recently passed by the bank where it all started on our way to our first stop. We were at the street corner at the butcher shop when the first ambulances roared by us, quickly followed by truck loads of armed men, probably the PA policemen. Further information gleaned from Haaretz Daily says that the police were out-gunned by the militants. 10/4/05)

Thou wilt not take the beach road!

2005-10-03T12:29:00.000+03:00

Thou wilt not take the beach road. So let it be written, so let it be done. This conversation started with the comment, “That’s why we don’t take the beach road.” Ryan again tries to get us to understand why the beach road is ‘haram' (arabic meaning forbidden). But this time he had help with his explanation. We were all standing on the roof of our building looking toward the Shati Camp (we call it the beach camp), one of the two refugee camps north of us. We could see tracer rounds going over our heads into the void. We could hear the easily recognized high-pitched staccato of AK-47 fire, followed by the lower pitched echo of what was probably a .50 caliber answer. Every so often, there was the sound of the explosions, probably RPG (rocket propelled grenades) rounds.

This was the answer to my question the other day about whether the PA was going to be able to enforce their ban on the carrying of weapons on the streets of Gaza. From what we’re hearing, the son of a slain Hamas leader was stopped by PA policemen. When they tried to relieve him of his weapon, he called in help from his Hamas pals to prevent such an outrage. The end result was an hour long battle that raged at several locations, killing three and injuring fifty.

What will be the outcome of this? Well, IMHO, there is no way that the PA can back down now. If they do, they’ll be punked forever. It is now absolutely necessary that they carry through with their plans to disarm everyone (this includes their pet force, Fatah). There can only be one army if you’re going to have one.

Remind me of this when I say that this place gets boring.

Jerusalem, still Golden

2005-10-01T20:14:00.000+03:00

For the time being, it would seem that the air strikes are over in Gaza. There were no sonic booms on Wednesday night and everyone got a good night’s sleep finally. So it would appear that everyone has taken their toys and gone home. Hooray for them and respite for us.

I left right after school on Thursday for Erez on my way to Jerusalem. Cheers to the teenage soldiers at the frontier crossing for figuring out that I am indeed Osama bin Laden’s cousin. They must have seen the family resemblance and taken it from there. I was stopped in the middle of the cage (you’d have to see it to understand how much it matches the description) while they had me put all of my belongings on the ground, turn around several times, had me stand there with my hands raised and a few more idiotic things. I can hear my father right now, telling me that they’re just trying to protect themselves against the bombers……..and I’d give him that argument, IF they didn’t know that we were members of a recognized NGO in Gaza, IF they didn’t know that they themselves had closed Erez to all Palestinians EXCEPT those on an emergency. They knew that I was an American citizen and no terrorist, but it tweaked the ego of some teenage Israeli to humiliate someone when he got bored sitting in his little tower!! Okay……….okay………………I’m calm now………I don’t need the medication.

Ray and I (no mom, not the female Ray)took the train to Jerusalem (okay, last time for that unless we’re leaving early in the day). The trip takes a lot longer than taking the taxi and at night, you don’t see the scenery. So the consensus is that next time, we take the bus. We also found that you can forget public transport getting home on Saturday. Nothing runs on Shabbat (the Sabbath) before the sun goes down. So it’s the taxi back to Erez from Jerusalem.

As for the actual trip, it was great again. The two biggest stories coming out of it being, woooooohooooooooo…………… I got to spend the night inside the Old City AND those who spend six dollars for a hostel room deserve what they get. So okay, I’ll never do it again. I spent part of the night wondering if the cat I kept hearing was going to jump through the hole in the window above my head, not to mention the suspect cleanliness of the sheets on the bed. Suffice it to say, we only spent the FIRST night in that hostel. On the second night, we spent twenty dollars for rooms………..HUGE improvement (insert little commercial here for the Hebron, neé Tabasco, Hostel in the Old City)

I did get to see the Garden Tomb, but I’m still sold that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the right spot. History and logic doesn’t seem to support the Garden tomb area as the biblical Golgotha and burial site. I also spent half the second night in a very stimulating religious discussion with a young man in the hostel. He’s been in Jerusalem for ten months, living in the hostel and just soaking in the spirituality of the place. I can’t wait to make my next trip to the center of the world, to Jerusalem the Golden.

Just a Lot of Noise

2005-09-28T13:10:00.000+03:00

It was a funny thing last night. I’m playing basketball at the Young Men’s Christian Association (on an outside court) in a predominantly Moslem country (again for lack of a better word) listening to sonic booms created by fighter jets flown by Jewish pilots. By that statement, you can tell, that the bombing is still ongoing. But yet, I have still to see ANY evidence of it, not one bombed out building, not one destroyed truck, not even smoke over a smoldering crater. It would seem that according to CNN, I’m missing all of the fun.

P.S. For those among you that are slightly thicker than the average bovine, please do not read into this that I think that the people that the bombing is affecting are having fun during this "police action." This was a use of sarcasm. I am fully aware that innocent people are being injured along with those rightly targeted by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).

Sharon Wake Up Calls

2005-09-25T14:50:00.000+03:00

That’s it!!! I’m going to learn that every time I write one of these things and talk about how boring it is, something major happens right after I get off the computer! I wrote my how boring it is on Friday afternoon and went home (back to the hotel), JUST as I was getting ready to go out to Marna House (a nice place to eat in an open garden) the phone rang and the display read RYAN. DAMN! Of course, it was that bloody phone tree again! Apparently, those Fatah and Hamas boys were a feudin’ and the UN wanted to play it safe with us noncombatants. But of course, when it rains it pours! Just as we were walking back into the hotel, Al Jezeera broadcast the first news of the explosion at a Hamas rally. And the blame game starts all over again. Hamas immediately blamed the Israelis (even the Arab press didn’t believe that one) and in “retaliation,” they lobbed over twenty qassam rockets over the northern border. STUUUUUUUUUUPID!!! Of course, we didn’t know about their nightly activities, since we were not actually completely moved into our apartments yet…….and even now that we are, THERE’S NO TELEVISION HOOKUP!!!

We were doing our weekend shopping yesterday innocently strolling downtown. I was all prepared to come out to the school yesterday evening to give another installment to the “How Boring It Is Times” when out of the blue (literally) Ariel Sharon’s flying boy scouts decided to remind us who’s the baddest little country in the Middle East. Ironically, I was standing outside the P.L.O. Flag Shop (go figure, the P.L.O. now owns a gift shop) when a deafening explosion sent everyone scrambling. You could hear the jet pull out afterwards. Attention Kmart shoppers, time to get the heck out of Dodge!! We all ran to the taxis and beat a hasty retreat back to the apartments. There was a little collective shakiness. Just as people were starting to calm down, we got installment number two. This one was so close that if felt like we were having an earthquake. For the rest of the day, we waited on the next sonic boom or explosion. Brother Sharon has been keeping us listening; he even gave us a 4 o’clock AM wake up call, courtesy of the Israeli Air Force.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the bloody phone tree has been enacted!

P.S. Just as I was posting this, I heard about four explosions. I attributed them to more sonic booms, but Dan (the P.E. teacher) was out on the soccer oval and says that he and his class saw the F-16's drop bombs and saw the explosions.

Just Another Slow Day in Gaza

2005-09-23T13:28:00.000+03:00

There is nothing going on here in “the Strip” today. I decided not to go into Ashkelon again today. I’m just going to wait on next week when I can make it back to Jerusalem. I’m just sitting here at my desk, doing a little weekend cleanup on my computer and getting ready to take some work home. Although, once again I’ve received email asking about what the real situation is here. The real situation is “all clear.” There is absolutely nothing going on here that I can see.

Once again my axiom to friends at home is completely true, "Don’t get your Middle East news from CNN, FOX or Sky (British news service)." You’ll have to get it directly from someone right here in the area.

Other than that, I’m just spending time getting things cleared up in the new apartment (which is awesome by the way). As soon as they get the windows cleaned, I’ll have a pretty decent view of the Mediterranean. All I’m waiting on is the reconnection of my phone and satellite hookup for the tube. After that, we’re definitely good to go. Sorry for the slow post, but what can I say. Even though I live in Gaza, not everyday is a news day.

2005-09-21T13:49:00.000+03:00

I just finished reading an article about Gaza in the LA Times (Palestinian Leader Appears Weak) and the description of Gaza at the end of the article has no correlation in facts here as I see them. They basically state that there is complete lawlessness and anarchy in the streets of Gaza. Take it from someone who lives here. That is not the truth. One of the other teachers and I were walking on one of the downtown streets last evening doing a little shopping. I would have been in more danger walking the streets of Los Angeles.

I'm not trying to say that its completely safe here, but the American media needs to tone down the rhetoric. This is a nation(?) in transition. After almost four decades of occupation, can it be expected that all of the problems of Gaza can be solved overnight? To ask that of any nation would be asking entirely too much, ESPECIALLY when there are outside influences (i.e. De facto Israeli blockade) hampering the process.

Maybe the LA Times needs to send someone over here to actually take a look instead of relying on stringers who may or may not have some other axe to grind.

2005-09-20T10:51:00.000+03:00

Here we go, the first post AF (After the Fire).

At this point, we're still in the hotel that we were taken to on the night of the fire. We have been told that we will be moving into our new flats in the Hanadi Building very soon. We know that they are in the process of moving our possessions from one building to another at this very moment, so we shouldn't have long to wait. As for me, I hope it is sooner rather than later, since I am SO tired of living out of my backpack. But this post is not about the ongoing saga of the wandering homeless, this is the about the amazing trip to Jerusalem.

It had been planned that we were going to be taking a trip to Jerusalem. This plan had been announced to us several weeks before the fire. It was a way to get us out of Gaza, freeing us to get a little air without the restrictions on our movements. The original plan was that we would leave for Jerusalem on Thursday after school, but because of the fire and the subsequent two days of no school, it was decided that we would leave for Jerusalem on Thursday morning instead of waiting. Soooooooooooooo, at 10 o'clock Thursday morning (minus one of our number, another story entirely) we started towards Erez.

The crossing at Erez took only about forty minutes and we were soon on the road to Jerusalem. After about an hour of driving, we started the climb into Jerusalem. When the Old Testament says that they "went up to Jerusalem," it wasn't kidding. We climbed through the mountains and valleys, passing the remnants of the 1948 War of Independence, burned out rusted supply trucks who had not made it to the Jewish holdouts surrounded in the New City. Suddenly we made a curve and before us lay West Jerusalem, reclining against the hills. Houses rising from the valleys like strewn dominos against the horizon. We soon entered the city center amazed at the European-esque look. After a phone call to a friend (our driver couldn't find the hotel) we were let out in front of the Jerusalem Tower Hotel. (My friend Suzzane called it a negative three star hotel, but it wasn't so bad.) Most of us dumped our stuff and immediately made a dash for the Old City.
From that moment, the weekend was a blur of spiritual overload punctuated with amazing historic insight. According to Inayath, Jerusalem is where we found out that I (African-American Christian) am a better Moslem than Inayath Mohamed (born Moslem). The reasoning behind that statement.........I got into the Haram Al Sharif (on a Friday no less) and he didn't. You have to pass through two Israeli checkpoints (convincing them that you're a Moslem) and finally past a Moslem gatekeeper who tests your knowledge of Islam and Arabic. Ahem...........I passed. Score one for the wonderful gift of reading and the thirst for knowledge, that I know more about Islam than some Moslems. Because of that, I was able to get an up close look at the Dome of the Rock..........the holy place built to cover the stone on which Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son (Issac if you're a believer of the Jewish version, Ishmael if you subscribe to the Moslem version). But I am amazingly ahead of myself. Since that amazing feat was accomplished on the second day we were there. But the beginning of the legendary trip to Jerusalem was the trip to the Western (Wailing) Wall. After going through security (as extensive as that to get onboard an airplane, it was here that one of the security guys told me that I wouldn't be able to visit the Dome of the Rock as I was not a moslem and the plan began to form), we walked through a short tunnel into the plaza holding the Western Wall. David and I decided that we would actually go pray at the wall. We donned kipas (skull caps) and approached the wall. The feeling was indescribable. When we left the wall, one of the female teachers asked what I prayed for, and I laughed and told her that it was between me and Allah (she's a Moslem). By the time we left the city through the Dung Gate, the sky was starting to darken, but this was our first glimpse of Arab East Jerusalem. It is an incredible sight in its own right. But it would be for another time.

The next day Maysoon (the Palestinian teacher from Kuwait) and I arrived in the city to make our try to get me into the Haram al Sharif. As already stated, it was successful. David (the Art teacher) had playfully told me that I was going to hell because of my sacrilege..........while I didn't quite believe that, I DID think that I needed to do a little extra praying for forgiveness. Immediately after leaving the Temple Mount (Haram al Sharif), we started for the Via Doloroso (the Way of Suffering), the path, tradition tells us, that Jesus took on his way from sentencing to Golgotha. It took us a while...........Maysoon is a shopper. I never thought that I'd meet anyone that shopped with the same intensity as my mother.............okay, I was wrong. Add to that, that you have to bargain for the best price. This woman has a black belt in bargaining. I started feeling sorry for the shopkeepers. But we continued up the narrow Via Doloroso until we found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. One of the ladies that we met, called the church that ugly building. She's not far from wrong. It is not a becoming building when you think about what it is supposed to house. I guess that is actually a good thing. Would Christ have cared about the outward appearance of the building. I doubt it. While inside, I was able to pray at the tomb and then again on the top of Calvary, both covered now by shrines built over the years. It was a very humbling experience. After we left, I went to one of the small shops nearby to buy some crosses to send home. I took them back into the shrine to lay them at the foot of the cross at the top of Golgotha. I don't know if that will give them any special meaning in the grand scheme of things, but it meant something to me at the time and since one of them is for my daughter, I hope that she sees a little meaning in it.

There are a lot of things that I can't fit in here nor have I the words to convey them. I met people that were friendly and giving and I expect that I will get to know them even better as my time here goes on. When the residents of this Golden City call it the center of the world, I entirely agree with them.

It Wasn't Me!!!

2005-09-14T10:13:00.000+03:00

Okay, so it was becoming a habit. I go home, I get something to eat, I get online and then I rest a bit. THEN I SIT AND WAIT FOR THAT BLOODY PHONE TREE TO BE ENACTED!!!! I was not surprised, at only five thirty (5:30 PM) my mobile rings and I hear Ryan's voice. Of course, my reaction was awwwww, come on...........give it a rest, three out of the last four nights; bloody phone tree!!!! Okay, its official, the UN has decided that all personnel must be back in their apartments by a seven o'clock curfew. Oh lucky us, confined to the Harare Building again. I berate Ryan a little and hang up the damn phone. I then make my obligatory call to Veronica, the next person down on my end of the tree.

Part of the routine now is (following cursing and fuming) to go up to Rob's flat (on the top floor of the building, the eighth floor) about 7:00 to watch a few episodes of CSI (he has all of them on DVD). But when I get up there he's watching the beginning of Johnny Mnemonic, so why not, a little break in the routine, watching a little movie instead of CSI. Steve shows up a little later and the three of us settle in watch the tube.

About 8:00, another common occurrence, the electricity cuts out and we hear the generator kick in downstairs. It's a familiar sound. Every few nights we live with the generator. We reset the movie and start where we left off............that lasts about 5 minutes and then the generator goes off again. This time we can hear it struggle to come back on, but it doesn't quite make it. So we sit there in the total darkness making bad jokes about someone forgetting to fill the generator with fuel. Barely two or three minutes later, the joking comes to an abrupt end. We start to hear someone screaming up the stairwell, "Everyone get out of the building, get out of the building!" We stumbled to the door in the complete darkness not knowing why we were being told to get out. Later that night, the majority of admitted that we had the same thought, that the building was being attacked by one of the terrorist groups (just about everyone thought Hamas). Down the stairs we ran, into the increasing darkness, still hearing several people yelling for us to get out of the building. As we crossed through the fourth floor, even in the pitch blackness of the stairwell, I could suddenly see the problem. Thick black acrid smoke was rising up from the bottom of the stairwell, slowly filling it with unbreathable air. When I hit the smoke it immediately started to burn my eyes and lungs, but we still have three floors to pass through. Struggling through the smoke, I finally saw the light of the door into the street and broke free into the air. I was quickly followed by most of the teachers. (We had to wait on Veronica, she had heard the screaming, but not knowing that it was a fire thought that we were under some sort of attack and was afraid to leave her flat. When we noticed that she was not there, David and Anayath bravely rushed back into the building to get her; seven floors up. She latter stated that when she heard someone calling her name, she knew that it would be safe to come out.)

As we stood outside in the street, watching the thick smoke billowing out of the front door and stairwell, we realized that I was the only one with a cell phone. I called Ryan to tell him that there was a major problem, but since I (lots of emphasis on I) was the one making the call, he thought that I was making a joke. It took me at least two minutes to convince him that I was NOT joking. Because this a family channel, I cannot repeat large portions of the conversation.

The Gaza City FD showed up and were very professional if not well equipped (they actually had to borrow a few flashlight from us). Our Palestinian neighbors (on a street of apartment blocks) immediately started to offer assistance in anyway that they could, water was brought, chairs were arranged, even offers to transport several people to the hospital were made. Over the next few minutes the events were slowly pieced together. It would seem that the initial hero of the night was our night security guard, Mohammed. He made several trips through the smoke, knocking on doors, screaming to get everyone out after he discovered the fire in the basement (which apparently started in the electrical system.

Not too late after the FD arrived, Hendrick (the principal), Brian (Vice-Principal) and Ryan showed up at the scene. Ryan later admitted that until they were actually saw the smoke, they still thought it might be me just playing a joke to get them to break the UN's curfew. I have informed them that I will be filing suit for the defamation and slander brought on my good reputation in the community. Hendrick immediately asked Brian to arrange accommodations for the night. Bryan got to the head of the School Board, the head of security, and both the Business Manager and his assistant, all of whom showed up quite quickly

Long story short, our residence in the Harare Building is history. This morning, after a night spent in the Gaza Hotel, we have already started the process of moving. Several of us have already been back in the building picking up necessities. School has been called off for the next two days and our trip to Jerusalem has been pushed up to Thursday morning for everyone. The school is a arranging for a new place for us to occupy and our life in Gaza continues to stay exciting. (I will put in print here what I said last night.....I DID NOT START THE FIRE JUST FOR SOME EXCITEMENT! As was rumored by some among the newly homeless last night.)

Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem (Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even) ---- Horace

2005-09-13T08:30:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I got a lesson in flag colors. I already knew the colors for Hamas (green) and Fatah (yellow), but I didn't recognize the other two prominent colors that raced passed my classroom window during the celebration yesterday. So now, in the forever quest for interesting trivia to consume, I add two more colors to my knowledge of Palestinian factions, red and black.

I've learned that the group with red flags (and who would have guessed it in this religion-gone-mad region) are the communists. Surprised?!! So am I. How do these guys survive with a communist view of religion? Answer. They don't have a communist view of religion. Like everything else in this country (?) communist doctrine has been converted (some would say perverted) to fit the strangeness of this vacuum in reality that is the "holy land." (Just to show how much of a haven this school on the hill is, we have the children of most of the leadership in ALL of the factions. The communist leader's daughter is in my class.)

The group flying the black flags, wearing the matching balaclavas (ski masks to my American compatriots) and sporting the stylish camo attire are what George W would call radical Islamists, terrorists, guys that you don't want to meet in your neighborhood (that's why we're fighting them over here haven't you heard), better known as Islamic Jihad, الجهاد الإسلامي الفلسطي - Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi al-Filastīni (loosely translated - Party of holy war of Islam of the Palestinians), starring in stage and screen as the quintessential terrorist organization. (But hmmmmmmm, couldn't that be said about Fatah and Hamas as well? Seems that just about every influential Palestinian group in this region is tied to terrorism, er freedom fighting, er nation building, er................damn George, what is the phrase of the day?)

With national (again for lack of a better word to call it) elections coming up and Hamas poised to win an overwhelming victory, at least here in the Gaza Strip, what will the Bush Administration do. That is the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Do they cut off all aid to the Palestinians because their chosen government is one headed by what the Bush Administration perceives as a terrorist organization; or do they finally recognize that this region is not, and never will be, governed by the cold secular economic logic of the West? While they're deciding, I'll just continue to add new colors to my knowledge bank. After all, I'm already in the theatre and have a front row seat.

2005-09-11T17:59:00.000+03:00

Okay, I will refrain from throwing a hissy right about now!! The damn phone tree has been activated for the second night in a row and we're to stay inside the building. Because of the hand over of Gaza to total Palestinian control the UN has deemed it necessary that all personnel stay inside! Only one thing, an hour ago it was decided that there would be no official handover, but no one seems to have gotten THAT message, including the crazies in the streets!!! So much for me going to get food tonight. I think i'll just sit here and rant to myself since there's no one else on which I can pour my venomous thoughts at the moment.

And I was having such a good day up until now!

2005-09-11T14:34:00.000+03:00

Its amazing how tranquil this place can be. Today was school photo day. The student body is so small that we can get the entire school (students, faculty, staff and admin) into the same photo. But before we were to be there for the picture I had a student-free period. At the end of it, before I had to go down for the picture, I wandered across the hall into the library. The library in this school is one of the best places to be, in that it has a beautiful covered balcony looking out towards the Mediterranean Sea. I decided to take in the view before I went down to the soccer oval to take pictures. It was a one of the most tranquil moments I have ever spent anywhere. In the small space of land that stands between the school and the sea are several very small farms. The aroma of newly tilled and planted earth tinged the morning air. I stood on the balcony looking into a crystal clear postcard; new apartment buildings rising against the blue sea, billowing clouds making their slow pilgrimage across the pale morning, the hues of green battling the earthy umber sands, a new mosque rising from nothingness, all combining under a dome of complete silence, echoing a new beginning for a war-torn landscape.

It is sometimes hard to believe that this is one of the most embattled locations this planet has to offer. I found myself wondering if only. If only these children were given the freedom of movement that let them see the fantastic part of the world that they lived in. If only the Israelis and Palestinians could recognize the blood of fraternity that flows in their veins. If only their belief in the sameness and oneness of their one true God could give them a true understanding of the words "salaam wa shalom," (peace in both languages). This is such an amazing place. After fifty years of wars and rumors of wars, can both sides find the strength to make this land truly a "holy land."

We can only pray........Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem, In the name of God, most compassionate, most merciful, to bring peace to his wounded land and his scattered people, both children of a single prophetic father. May the Lord give peace to the offspring of Abraham.

2005-09-10T00:12:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we were told by the head of security at the school (can you believe that his name is Osama!) that there was going to be a huge party right in front of our flats and that any gunfire we heard, would be fired in happiness! Sorry girls, it was to be a men's only occasion. Well, about 3:00 pm, they started setting up a stage in front of the flats and getting plastic chairs stacked along the sidewalk. Ryan showed up about five to tell us that we were not to show our faced downstairs, not even as far as the gate to our building. Well, after listening to the music and watching the party from the windows of our apartments, that just kind of fell by the wayside. I don't know anyone that didn't wander down at some time or another. I just happened to be down when the fight started and saw the cause. I could just hear CNN announcing that there was an ongoing riot in the Gaza Strip, the cause as yet to be determined. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. How did the ruckus get started.........simple. They were handing out popsicles, throwing them into the crowd. Someone in the back of the crowd threw one back towards the front and clocked a guy in the second row in the back of the head. He picked it back up off the ground and Nolan Ryan'ed it back into the back. Several popsicles were then in the air.......................instant altercation. The older men had it calmed down in short order and the music started all over again.

The music............NONSTOP...........from 6:00 until...............well, hell, I don't know, its still going at passed midnight. Looks like there'll be no sleep tonight. (I've been told that they band was a favorite of President Arafat's and that they played for him on occasion.)

I did find out what the party was for though. While I was standing in the window of Anayath's apartment with he and Veronica, she thought that one of the men on the street was trying to tell her to get back inside the window because he was waving at her............when I figured out who she was talking about, I started laughing..............it was Mahmoud, one of the guys that I've been helping with his English. He was trying to get my attention. When I went down he informed me that the party was a bachelor party for one of his friends that worked at the university (see the above picture, the guy in the yellow shirt being tossed).

Women weren't allowed AT the party (after all, it was a bachelor party), but they were seated in the alley off the main street and watching the party from the balconies overlooking the street and as I write this, the party is still in full swing.

2005-09-09T17:59:00.000+03:00

Lots of shooting going on today. It sounded like there was a running gun battle going on, but it was in fact only the funeral of Moussa Arafat. Arabs tend to fire weapons into the air for all kinds of occasions, weddings, funerals, births, you name it and a weapon gets discharged. Tonight all of the noise will be coming from a wedding going on across the street from us. They've already started practicing with the 'ouds' (Arabic drums). I'm sure that there will be a bit more shooting tonight. But this is all just part of the adventure tapestry of living in the third world.

2005-09-08T10:35:00.000+03:00

No Ashkelon this weekend. I'm going to stick in Gaza and save my energy for roaming Jerusalem next weekend. Its unbelievable that its less than an hour away (that is, once you've gotten through the Erez crossing). The school is paying for the transport and the lodging, I already have someone set up to give me a private tour. This is going to be one amazing trip. So staying home this weekend isn't going to be a big deal. I have my Diet Coke, I found some Oreos (the dietness of the Coke cancels out the calories of the Oreos) and I can sleep in. What else do I need other than a faster internet connection. (You can't really download entire episodes of Stargate SG-1 on a dialup connection!)

2005-09-07T21:51:00.000+03:00

Go see Paul's blog. He has some great pictures there, one of the perks of having a smaller camera and not having to hide it! I can't wait until I can just go out with a Palestinian who will cover my butt while I'm shooting pictures.

2005-09-07T21:31:00.000+03:00

I went to workout at the gym with two Palestinian friends I've made. To get there we had to drive right passed Moussa Arafat's house. It was surrounded by PA guards. All I can say is juuuuuust a little too late guys. But according to one of the guys, there won't be too many Palestinians crying over Moussa. Seems he was a bad boy when his cousin was in power. Seems he ticked off the wrong group of people. Somehow I don't think lawsuits cut it here in good old Gaza. Sic semper tyrannus.

2005-09-07T17:06:00.000+03:00

The rest of the story is in. It seems that a force 80 men strong or so, stormed the house. After pulling Arafat from the house and assassinating him, they kidnapped his son. We are now hearing that he has been killed as well. The word among Palestinians is that this was a personal hit carried out by another faction of Fatah, therefore internal. It doesn't affect us in any way. We've been informed to basically keep our same security precautions (i.e. getting around via taxi as opposed to walking anywhere).

2005-09-07T07:56:00.000+03:00

At four o'clock this morning several of us were awoken by gunfire. It was a good distance from us (down in the beach area), but easily heard. The word is that the cousin of Yasser Arafat was assassinated early this morning after a 30 minute gun battle at his home. Looks like the factional fighting has begun as groups start to position themselves for the removal of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

2005-09-06T19:56:00.000+03:00

That just goes to show that news that makes CNN doesn't necessarily make it to people in the country where it happens. I got emails today about what happened in Gaza. I had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn't until some of the kids were talking about what happened that I clued in and went to see for myself on the CNN website. This is just further proof that safety is relative. I don't live in a part of Gaza where the radicals would live. Therefore, when something happens, I'm the last person to know. Inshallah (God willing) I'll keep being the last one to know. So those of you wondering how I was dealing with it..............easy. I went out with four of the guys tonight to eat schwarma; and it was good. Tomorrow, I'll stay in and eat leftover pasta. As for the bombers..................they might as well be in Zimbabwe. They don't affect me.

2005-09-03T14:25:00.000+03:00

We've gotten the word that all of the Israeli settlement housing has been demolished. So something that they were projecting at approximately being a three month job, actually took less than three weeks. This can't be the end though, there has to be something worked out as far as trade and supplies coming and going. From my observations, Gaza cannot survive if it is completely shutoff from the outside world. Just the sheer volume of people needs some outlet. I understand the Israeli contention that they are protecting themselves from terrorism, BUT, 1.3 million people cannot all be terrorists and its a huge mistake to treat them as such. There's an old saying that, "A well-fed man makes a poor revolutionary." I'd be willing to bet, that the majority of Palestinians would willingly live in peace IF their families were well-fed, clothed, housed and educated at a normal standard. However, starving them (both literally and figuratively) can only serve to further radicalize a violent minority.

2005-09-02T13:47:00.000+03:00

Allahu Akbar (God is Great to you English only yokels)!! The time through Erez must have been a record. We picked up a member of the PNA border patrol in the taxi on the way to the crossing. He took our passports right to the top man when we got there and in about twenty-eight (28) minutes, we were getting in the taxi on the other side of the Israeli checkpoint. (When we got to the Israeli end of the tunnel, I was asked if I were a VIP. Of course I said yes. Amazing what those three little letter will do.) The process was even faster coming back through (seventeen minutes). So I only get to add forty-five minutes to the running time.

There were no earth shattering revelations in Ashkelon this time. All I did was pick up a falafel pita and a coke and sit there reading my book and occasionally watching the people go by. I did, however, come to one conclusion and make one telling observation. If you can judge the level of conservativeness of a country by the dress of its female population, then most Israeli women I've seen can't spell conservative. At least Ashkelon is amazingly European in outlook, a real strange juxtaposition sitting amidst the conservatism of its Islamic neighbors. AND, it is amazing how easy it would be to exchange the uniforms of the young armed men on either side of the crossing. The family resemblance between Israelis and Palestinians is uncanny. I guess there's no feud like a family feud.

2005-09-02T06:57:00.000+03:00

Okay, going out to give them a second chance. I'm off to take another trip to Ashkelon today. The clock is ticking. How long will I have to wait to cross through Erez today? The running time to date is 4 hours 10 minutes.

2005-09-01T21:01:00.000+03:00

Had a little bit of an exciting end of the day today. Three of us went walking around the corner to the local Schwarma stand (if you don't know what that is, you're missing good eats). As we we're waiting on the order to be finished, we heard the people cheering and clapping. We turned around to see two flatbed trucks coming down the street loaded with unguided missiles and masked men in camo uniforms. It was my first close-up look at Fatah, the armed wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (the P.L.O.). It was a lot different from seeing from the safety of the couch through the lens of CNN., but still amazing.

I found out later that the Fatah offices were right across the street from the Schwarma stand, means that out apartments are about two blocks away. That makes for good law and order at least. :-)

Its also down from one of the best eating establishments in Gaza, Al Deira.

2005-08-31T21:51:00.000+03:00

Some teachers have talked about waking up because of the loud noises and gunshots that they hear. I told them that the gunshots are probably from wedding celebrations. I couldn't explain the loud (what sounded like explosions) noises. Tonight they were explained. The explosions being heard are the Israelis destroying the settlements. They just pick the middle of the night to do that.

2005-08-31T21:33:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we got a small taste of how hard it must be for a Palestinian to get out of Gaza. We were scheduled for a trip to Ashkelon (the nearest relatively large Israeli town). To do this, we had to recross the frontier crossing at Erez. When I arrived coming the other direction, it had taken me about ten minutes to get permission to cross. According to Ryan, the returning teacher who was leading our little outing, the school had coordinated our move through Erez with the Israeli authorities and it should not take long to get through. Getting out of the apartments at about nine o'clock, we arrived at the crossing about 9:30am. We handed our passports to the Palestinian border guard and waited...........and waited.................and waited. All the while, Ryan is on the phone with the Israeli side asking them why we were being held up, since it had been coordinated two days in advance. He was told that there were Palestinian workers coming through from the other side. We waited over two hours in the heat watching for the workers to come through the tunnel. They must have been invisible workers, as I never saw a single person come through. Finally, they returned our passports and told us that we could start through. We thought that it was all over....................silly us. When we got to the Israeli side, we were stuck at the gate. (Short description to follow here.............there is a metal gate, cameras focus on it..............anyone standing at said gate can be seen by the Israeli border guards at the other side.............When they're ready, they open the gate to let you pass. You can't go back to the Palestinian side, and you can't go through to the Israeli side until they open the gate.) For the next 45 minutes or so, we sat at the gate, KNOWING that they could see us waiting there..........Ryan called to the Israeli control station where we knew they could see us on camera and asked them to open the gate..................the girl hung up the phone on him. When they were good and damn ready, they finally open the gate to let us through.

Lets just say that no one was really happy when we dragged our hot bodies out of the tunnel and into the border station for them to REcheck our passports and documents. When it came down to it, we spent at least two more hours dealing with crossing at Erez than we spent in Ashkelon. Ryan swears that this was the worse he's ever seen it. But my question is: If they would do this to a group of obvious Westerners, who they know are with a recognized NGO, what chance does the normal everyday Palestinian have?

Thanks to Paul from whom I stole the inside the tunnel picture.

2005-08-26T16:34:00.000+03:00

Out of the destruction that is Gaza City rises the American International School, Gaza, the only English language school in the Gaza Strip. Established five years ago, the school strives to provide an American curriculum education to over 200 Palestinian students.

It sits pretty much overlooking a former Israeli settlement. From my classroom I can see the Israeli port cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod. I could easily walk to them if allowed. Sitting on a hill, the school enjoys a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea. We sat in the shade of the school’s patio at noon on the first day we arrived and the breeze off the sea was amazing.

2005-08-25T16:28:00.000+03:00

Picture in your head all of those photos you’ve seen of a tornado path where the storm destroys one house, but leaves the next door neighbor completely untouched. Substitute Israel and Gaza and you complete the picture. Israel is pristine, Gaza has born the ravages of war and it shows. The people of Gaza suffer crippling poverty and it shows. Gaza has been battered by economic forces beyond its control and it shows.

On the first night, I was standing on the roof of the apartment building looking at the Mediterranean, talking to one of the teachers that had been here a few years. We were talking about how hard it was for anything to get in and out of Gaza. He said that they laughed about Gaza being the largest open-air prison in the world. The Israelis destroyed the port, closed the airport and monitor the outer perimeter with soldiers and aerial surveillance. Nothing gets in or out without their permission. Unless a Palestinian works in Israel, there is no way out. One of the guards in hour building has a brother in the West Bank (the other part of the Palestinian Territory) who he has not seen in five years. He is not allowed to move from Gaza to the West Bank. Although there is no justification for the violence between the two peoples, especially no justification for the terrorism, the hopelessness that breeds it is all too clearly seen. The building of the so-called security barrier will only serve to intensify the pressure within “the strip.” This Berlin-type wall is seen by the Israelis as the way to secure their citizens on the border with the Palestinian Territories. This is a desperate move that will definitely slow the peace process.

From the Beginning

2005-08-25T10:18:00.000+03:00

This entry will be long by necessity.

I arrived in Israel early in the morning of the 25th. You can see the newness of Tel Aviv from the air. The buildings shine a brilliant white in the dawn sun as we came in over the Mediterranean. It was an amazing sight. The pilot warned us NOT to talk pictures of the city from the air as we came in as it was not allowed under Israeli law. That answered my question as to why Google Earth had no high resolution pictures of any of the cities in Israel.

We were told before we set out, that we should expect in the least, quizzical looks when we told the customs agents that we were headed to Gaza. The word was, that fact alone could cost us hours of time as Israeli security made sure that we weren’t the next way of foreign problems for them. I got lucky (unlike my teaching partner and his wife, who spent two and a half hours being quizzed in a small room at Ben Gurion Airport) I was asked by the custom agent why I was going to Gaza and when I told her, she stamped my papers and sent me up the line to the next person who asked the same question. I gave her the same answer and she sent me on the way. So I had be detained less than five minutes total. I was also one of the few who didn’t get their passport stamped as I’d requested (there are many Arab countries who refuse visas to anyone who has officially visited Israel [i.e. had their passport stamped with an Israeli visa]).

Lucky me, my luggage was right where it was supposed to be and it was relatively free of signs of searching (oh yes, I could tell that they had gone through it, thanks to the Gaza address on the outside). My ride to Gaza was right on time and the adventure started without a hitch. We enjoyed the dawn drive from Ben Gurion watching the morning sun illuminate the beauty of Israeli towns along the coast of the Mediterranean, but in less than an hour, we approached the scar that is the Erez Crossing; the tunneled entry into the Gaza Strip. I don’t have any pictures of the place once again, photography was verboten. Young Israeli sentries, looking like they weren’t old enough to buy a razor, let alone use one, leaned nonchalantly in the door of their post. We were ushered inside the checkpoint on the Israeli end of the Erez Crossing.