Khaled Meshaal has come a long way from the days when he would sit on a lonely hilltop next to his village of Silwad doing his grammer school homework. There is no solitude on that summit today. The Israeli settlement of Amona is a jumble of prefabricated dwellings surrounding a modern children's playground with a million-dollar view east to Jordan. Silwad sits in the shadow of the small settlement.
Meshaal's horizons are far broader these days. Together with many of his generation, Meshaal left his West Bank village for Kuwait with his family after the June 1967 war. The one-time high school physics teacher, who has led the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Organization (HAMAS) since 1995, is said to be gunning for the top job in the PLO.
