The ballad of Jared Malsin: Back in Gaza

A dear friend and former boss at the Ma'an news agency, Jared Malsin, is back in "Palestine". He writes 1,500 words or so on his first few days in Gaza ... I mean "Palestine". (You'll get the joke when you read his thing.)

I arrived in Gaza on Thursday. This the first time I’ve been back to any corner of Palestine since I was deported by Israel in January.

It took a week of paperwork and waiting in Cairo to get approval from Egypt to enter Gaza. After obtaining the permit, I met up with Kristen Chick, the Cairo correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and together we hired a driver in Cairo to take us to Rafah at one in the morning on Thursday. We raced across the Sinai in a taxi that appeared to be held together with scotch tape.

Arriving at the crossing around 6:30 AM, we were among the first to enter the terminal when it opened at 9, alongside a hundred or so Palestinians, many of them carting huge piles of luggage. One woman brought a refrigerator in a box. Another, brass-colored curtain rods.

At the border I was smiling to hear Palestinian Arabic, which I can understand better than the Egyptian dialect. I remarked to Kristen about the impressive cultural unity of the Palestinian people. Despite the separation imposed by Israel between the populations of the West Bank, Gaza, Palestinians inside Israel, and the vast refugee/diaspora populations elsewhere, roughly the same Arabic is spoken by all of them, and, I think, the same national consciousness. Palestinians waiting at the border ask me, “So, you’re going to Palestine?,” instead of reducing it to the particularity of “So you’re going to Gaza?”

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Goddamn speculators

Today I woke and thought:

Goddamn speculators are making my '91 Ford Bronco an expensive steed! Isn't it my right as an American to guzzle around town in a V8?

Bronco:

The need to "surf around" the Blue Line

When one surfs (or walks) from Haifa, Israel to Jiyeh, Lebanon, one must "surf around" the closed Blue Line. Apparently, Google doesn't recommend you try and walk, either.



The Blue Line is the 2000 line of Israeli withdraw from South Lebnaon; and in many ways it is the de-facto border between Israel and Lebanon. Keep in mind that civilians, tourists, and even camels do not crosses the Blue Line; it is closed, with all sides pointing their weapons at each other.

So ... you have to "surf around".

I guess Google should consider this in their walking profile. (And if you have no idea what I"m talking about you should click the link on "surf around".)




Update: This is a great video on Palestinian Oktoberfest.

Niqab + Hotpants

Just caught wind of this article in the Telegraph on two French students and their provocative video walking the streets of Paris wearing niqabs and....hotpants.

The video is apparently made in protest to the French government's new ban on the niqab in public places, set to go into effect next year.

Enjoy...I know I did.

"All my life my heart as sought a thing I cannot name":

This might be the best thing I've ever seen: A lone man going to find the American Dream by walking his Ass along the 1,500 miles of Baja, Mexico. God bless him - and may the cartels spare him.

Lieeberrman!!!

Avigdor Lieberman, the former nightclub bouncer and founder of the far right Yisrael Beiteinu party, is about to become famous: Apparently, his vote will make (or break) the extension of the Israeli settlement freeze - and thus the future of Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Above is the front page of Haaretz.

Freak show in North Korea

I have a problem with North Korea. They might have a point about feeling that "superpowers carved up the Korean peninsula", but that's no excuse to be Nazi's about it.

Perhaps when the final truth is known, if ever, Americans would have rather George Bush go into North Korea with regime change than Iraq ... just maybe.