PA Elections....Closer to Modiin Than You Think

One of the many reasons that people find Modiin attractive is that it sits inside the so called "Green Line" or pre-1967 borders. I guess that this must give people some peace of mind or illusion that by being here they are more removed from the hated "settlements" and are more secure. When I say being more secure, they feel that being within the Green Line gives them some guarantee against future government unilateral withdrawals and there certainly is a great deal of rationale to that. Then there is physical security, that there is less risk of some type of "incident" occurring within the Green Line than outside, but that's not really true just see some of the recent bombings in Tel Aviv, Netanya, and Beer Sheva as proof. Then there probably is the feeling that "they" (you know those people, the Arabs) are farther way because of this "line" that really appears only on maps, but is becoming more of a physical barrier with the creation of the fence. Yesterday, someone in the States wanted to make sure that we didn't live in those "settlements". You have to laugh when you hear these things, because people are just so naive about the distances in this country. Well friends, Occupied Palestine ain't so far away! Today, I was approaching the army checkpoint, which is about a mile out of town, when I noticed a bunch of cars filled with Arab youth hanging out the windows holding large flags of the Palestinian Authority on the new "security road" that the army has built near the fence around Highway 443. It was nice to see that our brethren were enjoying Election Day, but for those of you who think that Fatah and Hamas are some where "out there", you are wrong. Think about that.