Around Israel and Palestine

People stand around a large dish filled with hummus in Abu Gosh

People stand around a large dish filled with hummus, a chickpea dip, in the Arab-Israeli town of Abu Gosh January 8, 2010. A restaurant in the town, located near Jerusalem, broke a Guinness World record on Friday for the largest serving of hummus. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL – Tags: SOCIETY)

Call it the circle of life in the Middle East. In running two similar-looking pictures back-to-back in their photo gallery, WAPO emphasizes how, in much of the world, war is just part of daily life.

In the first picture, residents in the Arab-Israeli town of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem, break the record for the world’s largest serving of hummus, about 9,000 pounds worth. Jewish and Israeli-Arab chefs combined on the effort, filling a giant satellite dish.

In the second photo, we see Palestinian kids clearing debris from a crater in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike near the border with Egypt. The targets were underground supply tunnels. Humanitarian conditions on the border have become much more desperate since the beginning of the year.

The photos were both shot today.

(image 1: Ammar Awad/Reuters. image 2: Mohammed Abed-AFP/Getty Images, January 8, 2010.)

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Michael Shaw
See other posts by Michael here.

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