Reply #16: certainly volunteers I have known who have gone into such area

[Douglas Carpenter]

have reported being treated most kindly, regardless what Arutz Sheva and other right-wing hate sites say. Activist I have talked to report nothing but hospitality and kindness. Our friend Progressive Muslim did live in the Gaza and I'm sure she does not share your view. Certainly the number of 11,000 Salafist is very disturbing even if it is out of 1.4 million people in the Gaza - but even the Salafist have denounced this murder and as you know even Hamas has no time for the Salafist who they consider way too extreme. I don't think there is any doubt that the vast overwhelming majority has any time for these sorts. I think you have a cartoon-caricature picture in your mind what the people in these places are like. But the Gaza is a pressure cooker of a place where all kinds of craziness has been going on for some time. Even Sara Roy who has lived in the Gaza has commented back in the 90's on the lack of law and order, But there again Sara Roy, a Jewish-American Harvard academic reported how kindly most people were in spite of all the chaos.