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GAZA CITY, 8 a.m. - To get to the beachfront street where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat lives and works, you have to know somebody or be somebody.
We are mere journalists - not dignitaries or top officials of the Palestinian National Authority - but we do know somebody. Or rather, our driver knows somebody: the young guard at the checkpoint. He waves us through.
We enter a stretch that defies the popular image of Gaza: that of a wretchedly poor and crowded place, the squalid breeding ground of terrorists bent on driving Israel into the sea.
In fact, the Mediterranean looks quite inviting here - huge breakers crashing onto a broad brown beach - and the road is lined with hotels and high-rise apartments that would not seem too out of place in South Florida. In better times, you could imagine row upon row of tourists contentedly baking in the Mideast sun.
But now the beach is deserted and most of the hotel rooms and luxury apartments are empty. In the mid '90s, wealthy Palestinians from around the world sunk millions into construction projects in Gaza in hopes of a peace that never came. Now an apartment that cost $100,000 can be had for $50,000.
The headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority, or PNA, is an expansive, tiled-roof compound landscaped with hibiscus and bougainvillea. The homes of some government ministers are large and lavish.
"There were rumors about buildings that cost $3-million," says our guide, Bassam. "The ministers were not known as rich people. While they were being built, people put slogans on the wall, 'This is the price of selling Palestinian blood.' "
All we can see of Arafat's place is an ordinary-looking concrete garage. Nor is the house itself very impressive, we are told. Since the latest round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians began 14 months ago, Arafat's wife and 6-year-old daughter have been staying in Paris. Arafat, so devoted to the cause of Palestinian statehood that he didn't marry until he was 60, seems largely indifferent to material things.
"The president," Bassam says, "lives a simple life."
ON THE ROAD, 9:15 a.m. - As we barrel along the two-lane coastal highway, we talk a little about the history of Gaza....