BBC Reporter Kidnapped in Gaza

Distressing news about Alan Johnston of the BBC, who has been based in Gaza City for the past three years, and stayed there, and lived there, and reported from there the whole time, the only foreign correspondent from a major news organization to do so for such a long stretch. Despite its seaside location, Gaza is not an easy place to work even under the best of circumstances, and of late increasing frustration, hopelessness, and lawlessness has made operating there on a daily basis more difficult. Johnston was apparently taken from his car yesterday afternoon shortly after leaving his office. A number of journalists have been kidnapped in Gaza over the last year, but all have been released, most rather quickly. Let's hope that is the case in this instance.
--Phil Zabriskie/Jerusalem