News stories by Pierre Klochendler, page 11

Amidst recrudescence of tension on this critical front, the Israeli army is hoping to gain the technological upper hand in missile combat with 'Palestinian militants' by equipping one of its most sophisticated tanks with a miniature missile defence system.

'Every woman is a woman of frustration. Me, I'm just struggle.' Hanin Zoabi, 41, is a Palestinian Israeli woman, a fighting woman. An elected member of the Israeli Knesset parliament, she is the first woman on an Arab party's list, Balad.

The apex of modern times for one of the world's oldest cities is when what looks like a silvery car glides by. A cruise on Jerusalem's first light rail is a dream of perfection promising to relieve traffic congestion in the city.

As Israel's public television aired live pictures of crowds of elated Egyptians celebrating the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, the anchor suddenly had a telling twist of tongue.

Around the world, peoples revel in anticipation of the fall of a regime that has denied its citizens their basic rights. But most Israelis are haunted by nightmare scenarios of 'the day after', as if their country's stability was anchored in the continuity of the rule of Hosni Mubarak — not in peace.

They chant, 'One people, one draft!' They raise the flag of unified, across-the- board army enlistment — students and veterans wearing scars of past wars from a few dozen mainstream Zionist civil society organisations and youth movements.

The opening bell resounds through the bomb shelter turned boxing club located in the western part of the city. A Palestinian boxer swiftly jumps from his corner, moves across the ring, trades punches with his Israeli opponent.

'Once upon a time,' the educator tells Jewish and Arab five-year-old children, 'a plant laid dormant, holding its life on the darkness around it, beholding the night. Butterflies, flowers and leaves, their caress, were laid to rest. Dewdrop beads, tears in an ocean of hopelessness, enchanted the plant that grew and grew into a strong tree, into an oasis of peace in a land of conflict', into a community of two peoples, Jews and Palestinians.

Guyana became Thursday the seventh Latin American state to recognise an independent Palestinian state. Although the official recognitions are largely nominal, they have irked the State of Israel as they expose its growing diplomatic isolation in the face of the current peace deadlock.

Emotions are running high in this working class town on the Mediterranean adjacent to Tel Aviv, the Israeli metropolis that has long been the symbol of liberal laissez-faire Israel. Principally, anti-Arab emotions: Racism is on the march.