5 p.m. EST
Today there are some very powerful news reports and personal accounts of the pullout from Gaza on the Web.
At Israel Reporter, a blogger named Shlomo Wollins is documenting the events from the region.
He is capturing some very strong images and quotes from settlers. One man, an Israeli who has lived in his house in Gaza for thirty years, set his house on fire today and burned it to the ground.
He said, "I did not want them to come in and pull me out so I destroyed it."
The blogger at Israelly Cool is an Israeli citizen born in Australia. He remarks on the strength of the settlers and the relative calm, although he does report a few isolated incidents of violence. He reports that an Israeli woman stabbed a soldier as he tried to force her to leave. There is another report on the website of a man dangling a child from a window and threatening to drop him if the soldiers didn't leave his home.
At the Jerusalem Post website, a Rabbi has been blogging about his own family's evacuation. The Rabbi ran a school in Gush Katif, a community in Gaza. His blog postings ended on Tuesday night, presumably when he left the settlement.
And Palestinians are blogging about their experiences today as well.
At Rafah Pundit, bloggers are hoping for celebrations when the evacuations are complete. One writes that as soon as the occupation has ended, the community wants to paint the walls and clean the streets to get rid of graffiti and racial slurs. They are hoping for a fresh start in Gaza.
I am constantly impressed by the quality and diversity of blog postings during these recent historic events, like the Tsunami, the Iraq war, and now this day in the Middle East.
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Links:
Israel Reporter
Israellycool
Jerusalem Post
Rafah Pundits
12 p.m. EST
In Gaza, Israeli forces are pulling protesters out of synagogues, forcing them to leave the area. It seems that that resistance groups are comprised of part settlers and part supporters, possibly some Americans there to back their Israeli brothers.
The removal is happening by hand, with settlers being dragged physically out of the synagogues, but no one is armed. In a way this seems choreographed, an anticipated protest that the IDF has bad ample time to think through. Still, the pictures are compelling and the emotion runs deep. We'll bring you the latest.
And in the same hour, the new Pope arrives in his native Germany for the Roman Catholic Church's 20th World Youth Day. We will discuss the relevance of the Church for the young Catholics of the world, and the direction the Church is heading in under the new leadership.
Later in the hour NASA will announce plans for a new shuttle mission, and we'll have that, as well.
Fasten your seatbelts. This show will be live, fast, and filled with breaking news.
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