Gaza, Israel

hopefully brighter days ahead, avoid unless eextremely adventurous.

With Arafat gravely ill and the Israel Knesset voting to pull out of the Gaza strip it will be interesting to see what happens over the coming months, since dissenters are pushing for a national referendum on the issue. The withdrawal is actually scheduled for 2005 and appears to have popular support of the Israeli people. Yet there are many others who, based on their religious or ideological grounds, are saying that no 'earthly' Government has a right to do this. The plan calls for evacuation of all the settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern west bank. Anyone see a correlation between this just-in-time decision and the upcoming US presidential election? Just wondering.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It's full of refugees; plenty of political unrest. This is a major sore point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The port has been blockaded by Israel for the past few years, devastating the local economy. The unemployment here is very high, truly a very sad case here.

Gaza's a really small place. I went on a virtual tour. It's considered very holy to Muslims and I know you'll like seeing some of the Arabic Architecture. But there's not a lot of things to do here. Mostly religious. If you are Islamic, You will feel at peace, but if you aren't, You'll just do a lot of tourist shopping. :)