Mideast Crisis Means Southland Anxiety

The violence may be raging halfway across the world, but for thousands of Palestinians and Jews in the Southland, the deadly clashes in Israel hit very close to home.

“I can’t work. I can’t sleep. I am checking my cell phone for news wires. I am watching the news, reading the newspapers,” said Mustafa Mohammad, an Anaheim businessman whose cousin, he said, was among 84 people killed so far in the conflict.

“Even my wife gets frustrated,” he said. “She says there is nothing we can do and I shouldn’t watch this 24 hours a day. It is not good for the children.”

Friends in Israel e-mail Fountain Valley Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein frequently with updates on the crisis. The rabbi said one friend in particular has reassured him of her safety, saying that little has happened at her home in Jerusalem, because the clashes are focused on the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

“She says she’s fine living in Jerusalem, but I am concerned. This is a situation that threatens to escalate and widen. We all know this is the case,” said Einstein, rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek.

Violence erupted in Jerusalem and the occupied territories 11 days ago when a leader of Israel’s hard-line Likud Party, Ariel Sharon, visited a disputed site in Jerusalem’s Old City accompanied by uniformed guards. Palestinians rioted against what they called an affront, and Israeli police and troops responded with force.

The street battles have Jews and Muslims in the United States anxiously monitoring cable news channels and making numerous long distance phone calls for word on relatives.

Events took another turn Saturday when Lebanese Shiite Muslim guerrillas captured three Israeli soldiers on the northern border, demanding for their return the release of 19 Lebanese prisoners jailed in Israel.

But the vast majority of those killed and injured have been Palestinians.

Outraged by the escalating violence, hundreds of local Palestinians and Arab Americans on Sunday demonstrated in Anaheim. Chanting “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” and waving Palestinian flags, they condemned U.S. policies that they say favor Israel.

Many said they were inspired to protest out of concern for relatives in Palestine, many of whom they are in frequent contact with by phone. “They have no food. They have no water. They have no electricity,” said Dolly Hishmeh, an Orange resident whose relatives live in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The demonstration was peaceful, but police had to block off a quarter-mile stretch of Brookhurst Street after the crowd grew too large. At one point, hundreds of people began marching down the middle of the road. Many cars honked in support.

“Don’t support child killers,” read one placard waved at passing motorists. Protestors also displayed images of the 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose shooting death last week in a hail of Israeli gunfire was captured by television cameras and broadcast worldwide.

The boy’s horrifying death, many said, was felt by Palestinian people everywhere.

The bloodshed hit home for Mohammad when he received news last week about his 30-year-old cousin, a policeman with the Palestinian security forces. He was fatally shot while monitoring crowds on top of a building in their native city, Nablus, in the West Bank. The cousin had married just two months ago, he said.

Mohammad said he could hear helicopters and gunfire in the background over the telephone when he talked with his brother from Israel on Friday.

Like Mohammad, whose parents still live in the West Bank, Sultan Quadomi, a 28-year-old Palestinian, expressed concern for his family members. Quadomi left Jordan six months ago but has relatives in the West Bank.

“I’m worried about them,” Quadomi said after prayers at the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City. He said his father telephoned a day earlier.

“He said, ‘You study and don’t think about this stuff.’ He’s worried about me,” said Quadomi, who is working toward a master’s degree in information technology.

Jews expressed the same concern for their relatives and friends.

Eva Silverman of Anaheim said her 37-year-old daughter, Lisa, moved to Tel Aviv two months ago to teach English and study for a master’s degree.

“I spoke with her last night and she says she’s fine,” Silverman said. “I’m not thrilled though. In the high school she teaches at, there’s always a contingent of soldiers there for security. She said they’re normally very warm, fuzzy types, but the warm, fuzzy types disappeared last week. Now they’re real hard-nosed.”

Many Israelis have found themselves suddenly struggling to stay out of harm’s way, said Herb Glaser, 73, of Beverly Hills. His 40-year-old daughter and her family live in Tel Aviv and had planned a resort vacation next week but canceled because many roads are closed.

“They said everyone is trying to be quiet and stay at home,” said Glaser, who had spoken to his daughter and grandson the day before.

Glaser, meanwhile, said he and his wife intend to carry through with a visit to Israel later this month.

John Fishel said he spoke with friends in Israel who reported that while the situation is tense, most everyone had settled in to observe Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar that calls for rest, meditation, fasting and atonement. For the Southland’s 600,000 Jews, the holiday extends until sundown tonight.

Fishel noted that 27 years ago, on another Yom Kippur, a surprise Arab attack against Israeli forces sparked a Mideast war.

“We are all hoping and praying that this is not the situation that develops over the next several weeks,” Fishel said.

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Times staff writers Monte Morin, Karima A. Haynes and Carla Rivera contributed to this story.