These men sang and danced in honor of Mr. Bush. The holsters were empty, in case you were wondering. (Photos Emily Schultze)

New Orleans-based CNN cameraman Ken Tillis had just left Baghdad after seven weeks in Iraq, and I assumed Gaza would be a welcome respite.

Ken had joined me for a quick trip down to the Gaza Strip to do a story on the situation there before the arrival of US President George W. Bush to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. (Here is the story we did.) I did my best to brief Ken on what to expect on this, his first ever visit to Gaza.

Going in, I told him confidently on the early morning drive from Jerusalem, would be pretty straightforward. Half hour an hour, maximum, and we would be through the Erez Crossing.

But the roar of heavy automatic machinegun fire made me look like a somewhat dishonest guide.

Later I learned a Palestinian man and woman had opened fire on the wall that divides Israel from Gaza. Israel forces fired back, from a variety of directions. The two would-be attackers were dead in a matter of minutes, but the firing went on for at least two hours.

“We’d better put on our flack jackets,” I told Ken, as the firing went on.

“In seven weeks in Iraq I never heard as much shooting as this,” Ken told me, as we dug into our bags and donned the heavy body armour.

I called our driver, the long-suffering but ever cheerful Abu Sabri to see what was going on from his vantage point about a kilometre away.

“They’re shooting at something here, but I don’t know what,” he told me. “Be careful,” he warned. “I’ll tell the porters to come to you.”

Ken and I waited, and after a few minutes the porter, who goes by the name of Abu Antar, showed up with his cart to carry out gear away.

“It’s worse than ever,” he told me, as he tells me every time I make the crossing. Abu Antar wasn’t even talking about the gunfire: he was talking about trying to scrape. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of Gazans, he’s always right.

As the shooting continued, we made our way to the passageway leading into Gaza, a long concrete walkway shielded on both sides by blast walls and covered by some sort of plastic sheeting. After about 100 steps there is a large iron gate controlled remotely by someone on the Israeli side. There we found a German journalist, and several elderly Palestinians waiting to go into Gaza, and on the other side, waiting to enter Israel, an old woman in a wheel chair, a young man in a wheelchair who had lost his legs in a traffic accident, and a gaggle of chain-smoking businessmen. The gate was shut, so everyone was waiting for the unknown, faceless, nameless person to press the button to open it.

We waited, about two hours, until the shooting stopped. The gate was finally opened, and into Gaza we went. Just as we emerged from the passageway into the sunlight I heard two large explosions to our left.

Two rockets had just been launched from Gaza, with great plumes of white smoke. One of the rockets exploded shortly after take off. I couldn’t see where the other landed.

I’ve been to Gaza more times than I can count over that last 14 years, but never have I had such an eventful arrival. And Ken, who knows? He’s going to think it’s like this all the time here.

--From CNN'S Ben Wedeman

I've just arrived in Kuwait, where the U.S. President touched down a few hours ago. Here are a few pictures of our journey.

Ayman Safieh is a young Palestinian ballet dancer going against the grain. He has embraced his love for ballet in a culture that is not only unfamiliar with the art form but sometimes frowns upon men engaging in stereotypically female activities such as classical dance.

But not Ayman's family and friends. Atika Shubert profiled the 16-year old ballet prodigy for this month's Inside the Middle East. Check out her impressions and pictures of the shoot below:

As U.S. President George Bush prepares to embark on his Middle East tour of ’08, there will be many issues and complexities he will have to face. Some engrained for decades in the fabric of the region, but others - very new - that have surfaced in parallel or as a result of recent developments across the Arab world.

1.Weak Leaders

- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert once reached the lowest popularity level of any Israeli leader in history. His approval ratings plummeted to single digits after the Israel/Hezbollah war of the summer of 2006 and have barely recovered since. He took over from Ariel Sharon when the latter fell ill and is not seen as having reached the primeministership through plebiscite. Rather he is the “accidental PM”.

- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not popular among Palestinians either. Add to that this he does not control a giant chunk of Palestinian land since Hamas took over complete security control of Gaza last summer.

- George W. Bush is on his way out. It’s his first visit to this troubled region as President. Analysts say a few handshakes and closed-door meetings with the above two leaders will likely not lead to a breakthrough. As Aaron Miller of the Woodrow Wilson Center told CNN : “The reality is that the leaders are weak, the gaps are large and the time is short.”

2. Wait- What Are The Issues Anyway?

As President Bush flies out of the region back to Washington, will we be any closer to helping resolve the deep disagreements that continue to make an Israeli-Palestinian resolution appear so elusive?

- Jerusalem: (Olmert may hint that a division of the city could be part of a solution, but the forces that are opposed to this are stronger than any one leader)

- Settlements: A few illegal outposts may be dismantled and “organic growth” slowed, but look at a map of the West Bank. There are hundreds of existing settlements, some with tens of thousands of Israelis. The kind of geographic surgery required to create a logical Palestinian State seems near impossible at this stage.

- Right of Return: Palestinian refugees from 1948 and 1967 are still scattered across the region.

- Security: Israel’s demands that attacks onto its territory by militant groups are halted with guarantees.

Will the Bush trip alter any of this reality? Perhaps his visit to Gulf States, eager to show that they can be a force for reconciliation (think Qatar’s role in the U.N. resolution discussions ending last year’s Israel-Hezbollah war and its commitment to send troops to Southern Lebanon) might have a marginal effect.


3. The Middle East In 2008: More Complicated Than 2000

- Iraq: despite the very recent reduction in violence in Iraq, the country is still deeply steeped in daily violence and political mayhem. Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda style attacks may be down, but major Shiite militia groups have ceased fire voluntarily and the support of Sunni tribal groups by the U.S. is raising fears that this is merely a lull. Once American troops scale back, the fighting between sects will pick up in earnest. Also, millions of Iraqi refugees have escaped the war in their country and are putting a huge economic strain on neighboring countries.

- Iran: Since Bush took office, Iran’s two arch-enemies have been either eliminated or severely weakened thanks to U.S. military action. Saddam Hussein on one side and the Taliban in Afghanistan on the other. This has left Iran politically stronger and able to influence events in Iraq. Also, oil prices at $100 a barrel mean Tehran is raking in the cash.

- Like it or not Hamas is now in charge of Gaza. Analysts on both sides of the issue say that talking peace with only one half of your interlocutor is sure to pose problems. If only because logic dictates that deals reached without them will not be honored by them.

4. Double Standard? Many Arabs accuse the U.S. and Bush Administration of not dealing with everyone fairly.

Not only in Israel/Palestine, but across the region. Editorialists and ordinary people ask why the U.S. is so closely allied to regimes that ignore basic human rights, yet admonishing others for the same crimes. Egypt continues to receive the highest amount of US aid of any Arab nation despite the fact that the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has reneged on earlier promises of democratic reform.. Another example is Saudi Arabia, which just recently jailed blogger Fouad Al-Farhan on murky charges just days before the President’s trip to the region. (By the way, he is still in detention.)

5. Beyond Bush: The Middle East Is Already Looking Ahead

The region is intimately and passionately interested in U.S. politics. From taxi drivers to restaurant waiters, they all know that whoever is elected in America will have a deep impact on their daily lives. One emailer wrote in to the show saying that he believes the region should have a vote when it comes to choosing the next U.S. leader because that person’s foreign policy approach to the region will impact their lives directly. Whether that person is Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton or Mike Huckabee will mean a different reality for people in the Middle East.

Hello everyone,

I'm currently in Jerusalem following US President Bush's first trip to the region as President.