Gaza: Pictures From A Mediterranean Paradise

The picture to the left is of the central public library in Gaza. If it does not look familiar to you, I am not surprised. Whenever there is a story on Gaza, a picture of the squalid refugee camps is usually attached. Most people do not realize that the majority of Gaza is developed and very beautiful. I hope these pictures dispel the myth of the indigence of Gaza.

I hate to scream media bias against Israel. I just hope that you realize that the reporters that neglected to show you the presentable sections of Gaza are the same ones that tell you about the suffering of the Palestinians. Draw your own conclusions. Imagine the image of New York if all the stories featured Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville instead of the Manhattan skyline, Times Square, or Wall Street.

While the plight of the Palestinian is constantly told and retold, the media talks very little about the excruciation of the Lebanese Christians at the hands of the Palestinians and other Arabs. Since the United States is a predominately Christian country, this aperture in the reporting from the Middle East seems odd.

My neighbor George, a Lebanese Christian from the southern town of Sarba (near Saida), reminded me "the Palestinians were willing to leave Gaza in the late sixties and early seventies and resettle in Lebanon." During the long war between the Palestinians and Lebanese, the Palestinians killed 20 of his relatives. Some members of his family were murdered at a family funeral to mourn the original members of the clan that had been killed by the Palestinians. George can not go back to his family home because the Palestinians have stolen it from them.