A different Hamas?

In a good analysis in Ha'aretz, Zvi Bar'el observes that Hamas' religious agenda seems to have disappeared, despite the Koranic citations quoted in the Mecca summit between Hamas and Fatah.  Here's the start of  the piece:

At the signing ceremony for the Mecca agreement last week, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh all vied so hard to outdo one another that it almost seemed as if they were competing in a Koran recitation contest.

Abbas, who spoke first, didn't know how far Meshal was about to go with Koranic citations, and so he quickly switched to discussing secular matters. Meshal, however, made a brilliant showing. The lengthy verses he quoted by heart resounded throughout the huge auditorium and, if anybody was looking around, they would have noticed at least three Saudi royals murmuring the verses along with Meshal and nodding their heads approvingly.

Meshal, apparently, cleverly chose the right verses. "You can't come into the home of the Saudi royalty without being able to quote some long verses," an Egyptian journalist once said to me. "In the West, everyone always has a joke or some witty comment ready. In Egypt, you have to come up with an eloquent phrase in praise of the host. In Saudi Arabia, it's just Koranic verses. You'd think everyone there is some kind of religious sage," he explained.

Yet the verses that served as a backdrop for the unity agreement could not obscure one particularly interesting detail: Nowhere in the entire agreement, in all the speeches, and in the entire past year since Hamas came to power, has a single religious statement been heard from it. It seems like even Article 27 of the Hamas charter has been totally forgotten.

This section says that "Despite our esteem for the Palestine Liberation Organization and what it is capable of developing into, and without belittling its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we cannot exchange the Islamic nature of Palestine in the present or future for the adoption of secular ideas -- Hence the day on which the Palestine Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life we will be its soldiers and the fuel of its fire which will burn the enemy. However, until then -- the Islamic Resistance Movement will treat the Palestine Liberation Organization as a son treats his father, brother treats brother, relative treats relative."

Just scrapping by...

b RAMALLAH, West Bank - The next time you buy something metal that says, Made in China, remember this family. Abu Nabil and sons Nabil, Hamza and Hazem scour the roads and fields of the West Bank for scrap metal that they sell to dealers who in turn ship it to the Chinese. For a full day's work, the family can make 60 shekels, or about $13 although this particular Saturday was "not a good day,'' Nabil said. Until the start of a new wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2000, Abu Nabil worked as a chef in Israel. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been barred from entering Israel and many are forced to scrounge for a living. Almost 70 percent of Palestinians now live in poverty, the UN estimates.

Condi's in town

JERUSALEM - Had dinner tonight at the King David hotel, then walked down the street to Jerusalem's other 5-star hotel, the David Citadel, whose driveway and lobby were crowded with TV crews and guests hoping to get a glimpse of Condoleezza Rice. I hung around the lobby a bit, only to be told by an Israeli security agent that they "always bring her in the back way."  Rice, who earlier in the day was in Baghdad, is here to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmound Abbas in an effort to jump-start the peace talks. On arrival, Rice held a  very brief, no-questions, press conference with Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni. (I absolutely LOVE her name :)

I've been told that the King David - the 75-year-old institution that fancies itself the hotel of "presidents and kings''  - is miffed that Rice always stays at the David Citadel, a much newer place.  "I don't care where she stays - she can stay at my house - as long as she does something,'' my cab driver, Tissir said, echoing a widespread hope that peace talks, which came to a grinding halt when Palestinians elected a Hamas government this time last year, will finally resume.

Market day

JERUSALEM - Saturdays are quiet on the Jewish side of Jerusalem - it's Shabbat - but not so in Arab East Jerusalem, where one of the  simple pleasures of life is perusing the street market just outside the Old City. Vendors sell everything from produce to cosmetics to tea glasses to bras. You can also buy a kaek simsm - sesame-encrusted bread in the shape of a large oval - that comes with a little packet of zatar - a ground oregano-like spice mixed with salt - that you sprinkle on the bread. Cost: about 50 cents.  Add a tangerine and it makes a fine lunch to enjoy while watching the parade of shoppers. (as always, click on the photos to enlarge) 

The Hole-y Land

DEAD SEA, Israel - Click on this photo to enlarge, and you'll see that Florida isn't the only place with a sink hole problem. As the Dead Sea dries up, more and more sink holes are appearing in places that used to be under water. Fortunately, it's a lightly populated area so no houses are at risk. But people who ignore these signs can be sucked into the muck, which has a consistency like quick sand.

Shades of empire lost..

WADI RUM, Jordan - (click to enlarge) This old wooden box car made in Belgium in the early part of the 20th century is all that remains of the Ottoman Empire's Hejaz Railway through Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The Turks built the railway ostensibly to expedite travel to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are required to make if they are able. But the real reason was to consolidate Turkish control of the region. Arabs, working with the British intelligence officer T.E. Lawrence - "Lawrence of Arabia'' - blew up the Hejaz during the Arab revolt, and the Ottoman Empire came to an end in World War 1 . The tracks are now used to carry phosphate - Jordan's largest export - to the port of Aqaba on the Red Sea.

Meet Hazim

NEAR THE IRAQI BORDER - Meet Hazim, my Jordanian driver/interpreter. His father was Jordan's chief judge, and Hazim, like many Jordanians in the '80s, went to college in Iraq where he studied physics at Mosul University - "one of the 17 best in the world'' during Saddam Hussein's regime, he says. Hazim tried teaching, decided he wasn't cut out for indoor work, so he's  now a tour guide. I'm the first journalist he's worked with, but he speaks flawless English and is doing a fine job.

He's often worked with Israeli tourists (Jordan is one of just 2 Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel) and here's a joke  the Israelis like: "Why did Moses wander around the desert for 40 years? Because he had an Egyptian guide, not a Jordanian.''

Highway to hell

RUWAISHED, Jordan - (click to enlarge photo)  We drove out to the Iraqi border yesterday - it's  roughly a 3 1/2 hour drive each way over a very rough, two-lane highway.  During the years of economic sanctions, this was a heavily traveled road, with hundreds of trucks a day ferrying goods to Iraq and bringing back oil. But since the U.S.-led "liberation,'' it's become the road to nowhere, or more aptly, the highway to hell.  Iraq now imports much of what it needs through Syria, Turkey and Iran, while most Jordanians are too frightened - rightfully so - to make the 400-mile trip from Amman to Baghdad. The last time I took this road was in April 2004, just a few days after four American contractors were murdered in Fallujah and their charred remains strung up on a bridge. The memory of that trip still causes chills.

A cautious optimist

AMMAN , Jordan - As I was in the hotel lobby waiting for my driver, I chatted briefly with Dr. Samir A. Hassan, who was passing through Amman on his way back to Iraq from a conference in the United States. Hassan, a brigadier general and chief surgeon in the Iraqi army, said he thinks the troop surge will work. "Otherwise, this is the last chance for Iraq,'' he said.

According to Hassan and another Iraqi sitting nearby, we in the media exaggerate the violence in Baghdad. But when I pressed Hassan on the dangers, he acknowledged that he lives in the Green Zone - the massively fortified home to U.S. diplomats and contractors - and that he is protected by several bodyguards!

A more popular red, white &blue

AMMAN, Jordan - In this monochromatic city of beige, beige and more beige, the Russian flag provides a welcome bit of color. President Vladimir Putin - who accused the U.S. this weekend of wanting to dominate the world -  is here as part of a three-day swing through the Mideast that includes stops in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Jordan does not have any substantial oil or gas resources but it hosts many Russian oil companies, which had contracts in Iraq and had to move to neighboring Jordan following the U.S.-led invasion. According to a Russian news service, the two countries are mulling geological exploration in Jordan and joint projects in Iraq, as well as the construction of a new pipeline from Iraq to Jordan.

By the way, many people here agree with Putin's criticism of the U.S. although the Jordan Times said in an editorial today that the Russian president "may have underestimated the strength of HIS country (my emphasis added) and the role it plays when he suggested that Washington alone makes all the calls in the world. Still his remarks are clear reflection of most of the world community's dismay with current international situation.''