Ha'aretz, an Israeli paper, has a couple of interesting articles on life in the West Bank. One of them is about a couple of settlers who are being fired on by Palestinians. While a number of the settlers are there for political reasons many are there because it was a less expensive apartment with a view. Now they are caught, literally, in the cross-fire.

The other is what the Palestinians experience when the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) comes visiting. This one was written by Amira Hass, an Israeli writer that has been living with the Palestinians.

The year of living dangerously in Gilo
Uzi and Liora Na'im thought they were simply buying a house with a view, but now their living room window in Gilo has become the bull's eye for shooters in Beit Jala.

America comes to Beit Rima
by Amira Hass

So...How's the war going?

Confusion over war's next phase as ground attack stalls

British and American troops are being prevented from conducting any meaningful operations on the ground against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden because of a lack of knowledge about conditions in Afghanistan, defence sources admitted yesterday.

With the government showing increasing signs of impatience at the failure to make a breakthrough after three weeks of air strikes in which more than 3,000 bombs have been dropped on the country, the sources said there was an "an intelligence vacuum".

Amid a growing realisation that the lightning attack by US airborne troops into Afghanistan captured on grainy video this month was little more than a public relations exercise, there is also increasing concern and frustration in Washington about the way the military campaign is going. "The Americans are very desperate about what to do next," another well-placed defence source told the Guardian.
[read more]

There's "an intelligence vacuum" but I think it's in the White House.

More of get your war on