Weapons of light construction
by Amira Hass

Early Sunday morning, when the neighbors telephoned to Ismail at home to tell him what happened, all they said was that soldiers had dynamited the iron door to his print shop. Arriving on the scene, unshaven, he was shocked to find that his brand-new, $23,000 paper-cutting machine, ordered a month ago (from Israel, where else?) and installed only two days before the shelling, had been completely destroyed when the door was blown in. (...)

The five computers - the pride of the print shop and its staff - were overturned, broken, shattered. He hadn't yet had a chance to check whether their hard disks had been taken or not, since it was clear that what the shelling failed to accomplish, soldiers had seen to. They had climbed up to the gallery and confiscated a file with thousands of disks - with science and technology learning materials for children. "Futurekids", the series is called. Ismail printed the texts that go with the disks and was then supposed to have distributed them to schools and book shops. "That was the biggest shock, that they took these learning materials for children," said Ismail, who studied physics and math at Bir Zeit University and graduated in 1985.
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The war within
Israelis are not only in conflict with the Palestinians. They are also bitterly divided among themselves over race, religion and politics. As the country goes to the polls, Jonathan Freedland reports on how deep - and hateful - those divisions really are

Take another look at Mitzna in that Bet Shemesh basement. He stands tall and impressive, in cobalt blue shirt and neat navy blazer. He has a distinguished, even noble face: modern rimless glasses, and an ancient, prophet's beard. He speaks fluently and well. Yet the key fact about him for many in this town - visible in the way he looks, dresses and speaks - is that he is not one of them. Instead, he looks the archetypal man of the Labour establishment - educated and Ashkenazi - which so many Mizrahi Jews continue to resent.
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Israel Goes Too Far

In a development that probably shouldn't shock me, but does, Israel has publicly announced plans to murder people on U.S. soil. The story initially surfaced in a Jan. 15 report by UPI correspondent Richard Sale. Sale reports both the aggressive plan of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency to conduct targeted assassinations in other countries, but also the nonplussed reaction of U.S. officials.

I can't decide if Israel's new policy, or the American lack of outrage, is what disturbs me the most.
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