I haven't been there, but I lived in Tel Aviv.
Well, that explains it. ;-) I thought is was just sand and a few huts too, but then a friend of my actually went there and I got to see the pics. Amazing. I think Adam may have posted a few of 'em here. I'd LOVE to live there, seriously! Beautiful homes with flower gardens all round, and next to the sea? I'M READY TO GO!!!
That's precisely the problem. I've been to Israel probably eight times, and I've never been there either. As a result, people in pre-1967 Israel (to say nothing of the rest of the world) have a mental picture of crazy Jews with guns living in trailers on sand dunes. It's only in the last few weeks -- really, I think, since the human chain from Jerusalem to Gaza a few months ago -- that there has been any portrayal of Gaza Jewry as human.
If the West Bank is going to be saved, the Israelis living there have to start a PR campaign immediately. They need to show the rest of the nation (and the world) how established their communities are; they need to show that they are productive members of Israeli society (Gaza, for example, has exported $120 million/year in agricultural exports, mostly organic fruits and vegetables). They need to convince the rest of Israel to stop calling them "Settlers" and stop referring to the areas where they live as "the Territories." They need to build bed and breakfast inns and convention centers, and encourage professional associations to hold meetings in their towns. I don't think the average Israeli would have destroyed Sderot Jewry the way Gaza Jewry seems to be coming to an end. They must be made to understand that West Bank Jewry is in an equally precarious position.