(Jerusalem Post) Matthew Gutman - In Gaza, Khaled, 10, a student at the Jabalya UNRWA school, peered up at tapestries depicting fantastical victories: a burning Israeli Knesset and a giant-sized gunman stomping on settlers' homes, with haredi men fleeing in the foreground. Within sight of a professionally designed billboard depicting a new arsenal of sophisticated antitank missiles, little Khaled said he was disgusted by the PA's weakness. "Hamas is stronger than the Authority," he said. "I spit on Abu Mazen" [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas]. "Everybody in Gaza knows that it was not Abbas's tahadiya (state of calm) that sent Israel packing, but 'the resistance,'" Khaled tells the grownups interviewing him. "Through such warfare, all of 'Palestine' will be freed." Across Gaza, an especially telling, and common, banner reads: "Four years of fighting is better than 10 years of negotiations," referring to the Oslo negotiations in the 1990s.
2005-09-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive