[Israel] Gaza poverty is for real

From Gulf Daily News

GAZA CITY: "Ariel Sharon ended the occupation of Gaza but built gates and locked them. If he dies, I won't be sad," said Mohammed Al Zanta, doubtful that the demise of the Israeli premier can lift his misery.

In the impoverished and increasingly volatile territory, few Palestinians pity the Israeli prime minister, wired up to a life support machine and fighting for his life after a massive stroke.

A one-time arch hawk, Sharon may have rewritten his reputation by pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip just four months ago after a 38-year occupation but nothing has alleviated the security chaos and poverty in the territory.

He is praised by world leaders for managing what no Israeli leader ever managed before: withdrawing Jewish settlers and troops from Palestinian territory. But ordinary Palestinians in Gaza remain bitter about their unchanging lot.

In the modest district of Shati, near Gaza City's shabby beachfront, the streets are strewn with rubbish.

Living conditions are hard and routine made troublesome by the shortage of public security, mass unemployment and few hopes for the future.

"Even dogs live better!" said Zanta, his voice hoarse.

In a corner of his home, where an old-fashioned television takes pride of place, one of his daughters sits silent, from time to time nodding her agreement with her father.

"My seven children don't work. Sometimes we don't have enough money to pay the electricity," he said.

"Public services don't work, the price of electricity is going up, petrol too," complained Ramadan Salina, shot during the intifada and receiving a disability allowance of 600 shekels (BD49) a month.

"Drinking water is still processed by Israel," he said, seated in a small, dank apartment in the same neighbourhood.

Salina cuts no ice when it comes to Sharon. "If we dies, we'll be happy. But if we see him in a wheelchair we'll be even happier".

In a neighbouring street, Nujud Mohammed returns home, a bag of shopping in one hand, her daughter clasped in the other.

Children kick a football against a wall slashed with graffiti inviting Palestinians to vote for such and such a list in parliamentary elections scheduled for January 25.

"Life is very difficult," she said, her face framed by a pink headscarf, her lips painted a matching colour, listing the problems faced by the sick in Gaza where security is disintegrating into public shootouts between factions.

Asked about the end of Israel's ground presence in the territory, she gets more indignant. "What withdrawal? It's just talk. In reality, it's as though nothing has happened".

"Israeli airplanes continue to bomb us as before and there is still the wall," she added.

Warplanes have continued to break the sound barrier over the Gaza Strip and fire missiles at militant infrastructure in the face of continued Palestinian rocket attacks from northern Gaza into Israel.

Late last month, Israel established a self-declared "no-go zone" in the northern part of the territory, a frequent launch pad for militant rocket attacks, in a bid to prevent such assaults on its citizens.

Whether or not Sharon survives or returns to work, Nujud has little hope on finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the short-term.

"If he dies, someone else will replace him and he'll have the same policy towards the Palestinians," she said.

in washington, the Bush administration is saying little publicly about how it intends to fan flickering Mideast peace hopes if Sharon remains incapacitated or does not survive.

Privately, American officials are gathering their thoughts and making some tentative moves despite uncertainty about who would succeed the 77-year-old prime minister.

Sharon was in serious condition and a drug-induced coma after undergoing his second brain operation in two days on Friday, two days after suffering a major stroke and bleeding in his brain.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cleared her schedule, cancelling visits to Indonesia and Australia to remain in Washington and on top of the situation.

"She thought it was the right thing to do, to be here with her foreign policy team," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

And even as administration officials awaited developments in Jerusalem, they were trying to address the deteriorating security situation in Gaza.

The US security co-ordinator, Maj Gen Keith Dayton, has returned to the region to try to get a handle on violence in the Palestinian territory.

"There is no central authority," said Edward S Walker, a former US ambassador to Israel and to Egypt.

Administration officials decline to acknowledge that they inevitably have to look beyond Sharon.

Walker, a longtime diplomat in the Middle East and Washington, said in an interview that the first thing US officials must be thinking about is what President George W Bush would say at a funeral. And Bush's attendance is essential, he said.

Ehud Olmert, who temporarily took the reins of power from Sharon and could be a top contender for prime minister in a previously scheduled March 28 election.

Before Sharon was stricken, polls pointed to victory for Kadima, the centrist political party Sharon founded after he broke with many of his longtime supporters in the hard-line Likud.

Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister generally placed to the right of Sharon, is a likely contender for the top job.

Walker said he thought the administration favoured Kadima, but added: "They cannot get too enmeshed in the election campaign."

Daniel Kurtzer, also a former US ambassador to Israel and to Egypt, said there were probably two things on the minds of administration officials.

One is how to stabilise the situation, Kurtzer said in an interview. He said that means "ensuring that the leadership that emerges in the post-Sharon era continues along the line Sharon has laid out - a tough response to terrorism, but flexibility and creativity in peacemaking."

The second, Kurtzer said, is that the administration would be "laying down markers on the Arab side, particularly with the Palestinians, not to take advantage of what they might perceive to be a period of instability in Israel".

The retired diplomat added, "My guess is that the administration is working on both to try to prevent a downward spiral."

Mideast history is instructive, with predictions often off the mark. But there are constants: US efforts to maintain order and keep Israel and the Arabs on a peace track.

Sharon illustrates how events in the Middle East often defy expectations. The ex-general wound up endorsing Palestinian statehood and withdrawing all Jewish settlers from Gaza and part of the West Bank.

Nearly three decades ago, Menachem Begin, another dedicated hardliner, agreed to relinquish Sinai to Egypt in exchange for a peace treaty. The Arab leader he negotiated with, Anwar Sadat, had vowed only months before the accord that peace with Israel was a worthy objective, but not until the next generation.