Sunday, April 28, 2002

Uglier the Images, Uglier the Rifts
BOTH sides call it the oxygen factory. An abandoned navy blue building made of cinderblock and sheet metal, it sits near an Israeli settlement here — and in the center of a chasm. An Israeli bulldozer will soon demolish it.

To Wael Ghusain, the Palestinian businessman who owns it with his three brothers, the factory is the last source of bottled oxygen for Palestinian hospital patients in the Gaza Strip, a $1.5 million investment and the product of decades of family labor. To him, the building's demise is a symbol of an Israeli settlement encroaching on Palestinian land.

To Lt. Itay Farkash, an Israeli soldier, the factory is a snipers' nest that threatens him, his men and the settlers they are here to protect. It is also proof of the failure of the Palestinian Authority to stop terror attacks on civilians. When the bulldozers arrive, Lieutenant Farkash will cheer and the Ghusain brothers will weep.

"All this bulldozing, just to protect their settlers," Mr. Ghusain said.

"I hope so," Lieutenant Farkash said.

Through decades of interminable conflict, Israelis and Palestinians have seen the same hillsides, houses and hopes through completely different lenses. But what is striking about reporting on different conflicts in the world today is that the exponential increase in the availability of information has done little to narrow the gulf between rival groups. Sometimes, it seems to widen it.

Satellite television allows rivals to watch one another's speeches and news broadcasts, if they wish. Or they can watch extensive coverage of a conflict by journalists from the West or other countries. The Internet offers endless Web sites and newspaper articles expressing the viewpoints of opponents, governments, aid groups, advocates and spectators. But none of it seems to matter. Opinions freeze in place. The middle ground erodes.

The gulf between Israelis and Palestinians appears to be the widest of all. Each side seems completely convinced of its victimhood. The recent Israeli incursions into the West Bank were legitimate acts of self-defense in the face of suicide bombings, according to Israelis. It was all a cynical plot to destroy the Palestinian Authority and reoccupy the West Bank, according to Palestinians.

The oxygen factory and the nearby settlement produce their own extremes. Near the settlement entrance, several young Israeli soldiers asked a photographer to take their picture last week. "Take his picture, he kills Arabs," one said, pointing to another. He added later: "I kill Arabs, too. He put a gun to his head and he shot him."

Dr. Ramadan Maged, an official in the Palestinian Ministry of Health, said the destruction of the factory would risk the lives of hundreds of people by eliminating the oxygen supply for hospital patients in Gaza. In truth, Israeli forces ordered the abandonment of the factory six months ago and the owners have been importing bottled oxygen from Israel, something they did for years before building the factory.

AND so the gulf remains. Satellite television now brings ghastly images — of Israeli victims of suicide bombings in Jerusalem, as well as of Palestinians digging for their dead in bulldozed homes in Jenin — into millions of living rooms across the Arab and Western worlds. And the Internet fosters scores of conspiracy theories about what is really happening — events that the mainstream media is supposedly covering up.

While rapidly disappearing, a narrow middle ground still exists here. Mr. Ghusain, the factory owner, said he supported Israel's right to exist and believed the settlement was the source of the problem. One soldier protecting the settlement said he would gladly give it away in exchange for long-term security.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/28/weekinreview/28ROHD.html

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