At Yasir Arafat’s bombed out and deserted headquarters here, one can gaze through the missing front door, past piles of broken concrete, straight to the placid Mediterranean Sea. Security guards sitting in the shade of a palm tree are the only people present, and their main concern is a flyspeck on the horizon, which they say is an omnipresent Israeli naval boat. The tight Israeli restrictions on Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader, have prevented him from setting foot in Gaza for well over a year, and other senior Palestinian officials are only rare visitors, leaving this coastal strip running largely on auto-pilot. Palestinian political leaders are still in regular telephone contact, and in some ways, Gaza feels less tense and constricted than the West Bank, where Israeli troops are in or near almost ever city and town. But there is little to suggest active political management here, and it raises the question: Is anyone running Gaza? Full Story
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