United States

In this roundup of blogposts from Gaza we hear from a teenager who just lost her friend and is scared for her own life, about a medical worker who was killed as he went to save someone, and from a man who asserts his lack of political affiliation: “I’m not Fatah, not Hamas. I like vodka.”

Two days ago, Australian activist Sharyn Lock mentioned the death of a particular teenager:

On the evening of January 3, Israel sent ground troops and armoured vehicles into the Gaza Strip.

Prof. Said Abdelwahed, who teaches English at Al-Azhar University, posted earlier in the day at Moments in Gaza:

Though Gaza is a long way from Australia, there have been many reactions to the catastrophe unfolding there. Many Australians have been using their blogs to post links that help to provide both information and analysis of what’s happening that is not always covered in the mainstream media.

Planet IRF has been posting AlJazeeraEnglish videos. He re-titled ‘Sderot residents live on the edge 30 Dec 08′ as Sympathy for victims…

Kevin Kelly discusses the possibility of an "unthinkable" breakup of the USA. After all, notes Juan Enriquez, "no US president has ever died under the same flag that he was born under."

Anonymous Coward writes "On Friday the wonderfully customer centric AirTran decided to remove a family of 9 US born Muslims after a comment between two family members regarding how close to the Jet engine they had been seated. The wonderful part is that after the FBI cleared the family 2 hours later, AirTran refused to fly the family, and refused to rebook them on their way from Washington to Orlando, Florida. The family purchased additional tickets on US Airways later that day, after AirTran requested that the irate father be escorted from their booking podiums by security.

Gaza's bloggers describe welcoming in 2009 with the sound of F16s and “special fireworks”, and a foreign activist explains why she has no intention of leaving.

Adham Khalil from Jabaliya Camp, who blogs at Free Free Palestine, posts a text message he received with special greetings:

The word goes that because of insularity, West Indians are not very much concerned with what is going on abroad and probably even less when it is not about Europe or the USA. However, the recent news coming from Gaza and the Middle East have had an impact on one Guadeloupe-based blogger: D.

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