IMPACT OF THE GULF WAR : Business Carries On to the Strain of News

Cable News Network echoed through shops and restaurants as if it was Muzak.

Portable televisions broadcasting the sounds of the Persian Gulf War sat on convenience store counters next to Lotto machines and cash registers. Telephones rang at stores as relatives called with the latest news.

At the small shops and businesses across the Los Angeles area, business got done Thursday. But this was hardly business as usual.

Awake since dawn so he could listen to the early news reports, Los Angeles restaurateur Michael Raviv made sandwiches as he worried about his gas mask-equipped relatives in the Israeli seaport of Haifa.

About 40 to 50 people, many of them born in Israel, crowd into his restaurant each day to eat falafel and hamburgers and talk about the war with Iraq. Many of them ask Raviv about his family in Israel, or about the boyfriend of one of his workers who returned to Israel to be with his family.

For Raviv, the fear of a Saddam Hussein-ordered attack on Israel burdened him throughout the day. By nightfall, it was a reality when he heard reports that Iraqi missiles had struck. Late Thursday, Raviv was anxiously trying to reach his family in Haifa while listening to his radio.

At Our Lady’s Gift Shop in Hollywood, partner Jean West stood at the counter against a wall that holds more than 50 crucifixes. Rosary beads, prayer cards and pictures of Jesus and Mary have all been selling briskly, she said. Some mothers have come to the store to buy medals of St. Christopher to send to sons stationed in the Persian Gulf.

Thursday was quiet, she said. But as war broke out Wednesday, she recalled, about 100 people visited the store in the hours leading up to the 5:30 p.m. Mass at Church of the Blessed Sacrament next door. As she worked behind a partition in the back of the store, she said, she could hear the fear in their voices.

“One girl said we should do more praying. People wished we weren’t going to war. This is a very large church, and the parking lot was full for Mass last night,” she said.

In West Los Angeles, travel agency owner Hassan M. Aburigheba spent the morning listening to his radio, checking his computer terminal for updates on flights and calling airlines for updated reports.

One customer of his has been planning a trip to Madrid, taking a later flight to Dubai at the southern end of the Persian Gulf.

“My advice was to just wait. I told her I can get her to Europe, but I don’t know if I can get her to Dubai,” he said.

Customers have been spending as long as 10 minutes at the counter of Francis Sheen’s Los Angeles liquor store, leaning over to watch the television that he placed next to the bottles of vodka and gin.

“Everyone wants to know the latest news. ‘What are the developments?’ ” Sheen said.

In West Hollywood, the marquee at the Roxy nightclub in West Hollywood reads “Give Peace a Chance. Blow Your Horn for Peace.” At the Laugh Factory comedy store a block away, one caller--believing that comedy and war don’t mix--expressed surprise to find the club open.

“They sounded like they were disturbed by it. They said ‘You’re going to be open even when there’s a war on?’ ” said manager Sabrina LaBow, who answered the call.