1. A6 N INTERNATIONALTHE NEW YORK TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2016
SANA, Yemen — To blare the
jingle that draws the children to
hisicecreamcart—inthemidstof
a war — Noah Taha has been
forced to improvise.
There is rarely electricity here.
Not for hospitals, not for homes,
and not to charge Mr. Taha’s little
blue MP3 player. To solve his
problem, Mr. Taha put a solar pan-
el on the front of his cart so he
could play the jingle — a some-
what haunting tune he called the
Na Na song, after an ice cream
brand — as he peddled through
the Yemeni capital.
It was clever, but Mr. Taha said
he had seen better. “I saw solar
used on an electric wheelchair,” he
said. “That was the best idea.”
I met Mr. Taha on a street full of
electrical shops during a recent
visit to Yemen, my third since the
signs of conflict began to emerge
early in 2015. With each visit, peo-
ple seem more put-upon: running
lower on money, more desperate
to find work, and struggling to find
food, medical care or a safe place
to live.
But Yemenis are also resilient,
living in the poorest country in the
region and saddled for decades
with feckless leaders. To cope with
the war, many have seamlessly
adapted to new roles.
Pediatricians have doubled as
trauma surgeons, businesspeople
have transformed into aid work-
ers, and proprietors of electrical
supply shops have become ex-
perts on solar power.
“We didn’t know anything,” said
Khairullah Ali al-Omeisy, 24, who
owns an electrical supply shop but
learned all he could about solar
panels when the boom began sev-
eral months ago. “We tried to
know everything.”
After scouring the Internet, he
can tell customers about the dif-
ference between Chinese and Ca-
nadian solar panels or the life
span of Vietnamese gel batteries.
Solar panels are all over Sana
these days, even available on in-
stallment plans for those who can-
not afford them outright.
“We made a huge profit,” Mr.
Omeisy said. Every shop on
Shaoob Street was getting in on
the action — and even people
without a traditional shop.
Mohammed al-Fendi, who until
recently was a carpenter, sells the
solar kits out of an old minibus he
converted into a store. “The mar-
ket is wide open,” he said.
And he thinks it will stay that
way for a while: Even if the war
ended, he doubted the ability of
any new government to restore
power for more than three or four
hours a day.
Life in a War Zone
Closer to Yemen’s front lines,
people have made more jarring
transformations.
Ahmed Naji Abdu once worked
as a driver at the Taj Sheba, one of
Sana’s fanciest hotels. Now he
worksforthemedicalcharityDoc-
tors Without Borders as a driver
in Taiz, a city torn apart by some of
the fiercest fighting in Yemen’s
civil war.
Mr. Abdu’s work, for one of the
few international organizations
operating in the city, was harrow-
ing enough. But his home was also
in shooting distance of battles in
Taiz, and his family was forced to
abandon the upper floors of the
house after errant bullets struck
it. The clashes have become more
frequent in his neighborhood. “At
night, it doesn’t stop,” he said.
His colleague, Dr. Arwa Ahmed
Saeed, was an obstetrician in Taiz
when the war broke out. She
worked for a time at hospitals in
the crossfire, where the victims
were “fighters, women and chil-
dren,” she said.
One day, seven women in one
family, ages 11 to 21, were killed
when a rocket hit their home. On
another occasion, one of the vic-
tims was a three-day-old infant,
she said.
She spoke to me in a much
quieter emergency room a few
miles from the fighting, in a
mother-and-child hospital run by
Doctors Without Borders. The
work seemed no less urgent as she
shuttled around the ward, treating
children with respiratory prob-
lems.
Yet she admitted that she some-
times longed to be back at one of
the front-line emergency rooms
despite all the misery she had
seen.
“I feel like I offered help,” she
said.
Less than a mile from the hospi-
tal where Ms. Saeed works, a
trash-filled sand lot offered a re-
minder of the dangers medical
workers have faced throughout
the war.
An airstrike by the Saudi-led co-
alition in December landed in the
lot near a tented mobile clinic set
up by Doctors Without Borders to
help displaced people. It killed an
18-year-old man, Yayha Mohamed
Dahan, when a piece of shrapnel
pierced his chest, his relatives
said.
The lot was still full of tents,
transformed into something re-
sembling a neighborhood. As I
visited, an ice cream vendor ped-
dled by, playing the same haunt-
ing jingle.
An Ailing Child
On my flight out of Sana, I saw
another doctor trying to deliver
care in terrible conditions.
He was accompanying a
mother, a father and their sick in-
fant son, Muhammad, who was
breathing with the aid of a manual
ventilator. They had set up a
makeshift intensive care unit in a
row of seats across the aisle from
me, on an aging Airbus operated
by Yemenia that is one of the few
links between the capital and the
outside world.
One machine, the size of a brief-
case, sat on the tray table in front
of the boy’s mother, and another, a
monitor of some kind with flash-
ing red lights, sat in his bassinet,
never leaving the doctor’s gaze.
The doctor sat next to the father,
and they took turns gently
squeezing the airbag.
It was not clear what ailed the
boy, and no one wanted to inter-
rupt the doctor to ask. The father’s
frantic calls to Jordan, the plane’s
destination, requesting that an
ambulance meet them on the tar-
mac, suggested the boy’s condi-
tion was grave. The journey,
which once took a few hours, now
takes six hours or more.
Planes to and from Sana now
stop for a two-hour security check
in Saudi Arabia. The inconven-
ience of the stopover has infuriat-
ed Yemeni travelers, who see the
security measures as an unneces-
sary and almost colonial imposi-
tion by the Saudis.
As Muhammad fought for
breath, the delay was potentially
fatal. The doctor appealed to a
Saudi security agent who was on
the plane checking passports to
hurry things along. “Brother, we
are doing everything we can,” the
agent replied. But the plane re-
mained parked for an unbearable
45 minutes.
The mother moved her thumb
and down her fingers, in a rhythm
meant to simulate prayer beads.
Passengers in nearby rows ut-
tered their own prayers for the in-
fant. The plane finally left Saudi
Arabia, and the cabin lights were
dimmed. Members of the airline
staff gathered around the family,
and the improvised infirmary,
shining flashlights on the baby so
the doctor could see.
The plane arrived in Jordan.
The ambulance was waiting.
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
Yemen’s War Becomes the Mother of Reinvention
By KAREEM FAHIM
Solar panels at an alternative-energy fair in February in Sana, Yemen, where blackouts reign.
MOHAMMED HUWAIS /AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Shuaib Almosawa contributed re-
porting.
JERUSALEM — In a sharp
turnaround, Prime Minister Ben-
jamin Netanyahu sought on
Wednesday to bring the ultra-
nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party
into his governing coalition by of-
fering to name its leader, Avigdor
Lieberman, defense minister, ac-
cording to politicians across Is-
rael’s political map.
An Israeli government official
confirmed that Mr. Netanyahu
and Mr. Lieberman had met and
formed negotiating teams with
the aim of reaching a coalition
deal “in the coming days.”
Just hours before meeting Mr.
Lieberman, Mr. Netanyahu
seemed to have been closing in on
a coalition agreement with Isaac
Herzog, the leader of the center-
left Zionist Union and the head of
the opposition in the Knesset, or
Israeli parliament. After days of
intense back-room negotiations,
Mr. Herzog, whose party advo-
cates accommodation with the
Palestinians, had been expected
to serve as foreign minister, an ap-
pointment that was partly in-
tended to ease international pres-
sure on Israel.
By contrast, Mr. Lieberman, 57,
foreign minister in two previous
governments led by Mr. Netanya-
hu,isknownasablunt-talking,po-
larizing figure. He demands the
death penalty for Palestinians
convicted of acts of terrorism; has
called in the past for the toppling
of Hamas, the Islamic militant
group that controls Gaza; and
once suggested that Israel could
bomb the Aswan Dam in any fu-
ture military confrontation with
Egypt. Israel signed a peace
treaty with Egypt in 1979.
Benny Begin, a legislator from
Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative
Likud party, told Israel’s Channel
2 television that the idea of Mr.
Lieberman’s serving as defense
minister was “delusional.” He
said, “This step expresses irre-
sponsibility towards the security
establishment and towards all the
citizens of Israel.”
Mr. Netanyahu has been seek-
ing to stabilize and strengthen his
governing coalition, which is dom-
inated by right-wing and religious
parties, because it currently holds
a majority of only one in the 120-
seat Knesset. The addition of Yis-
rael Beiteinu would give Mr.
Netanyahu’s coalition 67 seats.
The Israeli government official,
who spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity because he was not autho-
rized to discuss the delicate coali-
tion negotiations publicly, as-
serted that Mr. Lieberman’s join-
ing the government could
advance prospects for peace with
the Palestinians.
The official noted that Mr.
Lieberman, who immigrated to Is-
rael from the Soviet Union in the
1970s and lives in a West Bank set-
tlement, had voiced support for a
Palestinian state and that a right-
wing government would have
more credibility with the Israeli
public to take difficult steps for
peace without fear of compromis-
ing Israel’s security. He noted that
it was Menachem Begin, the for-
mer Likud leader (and father of
the current legislator) who made
peace with Egypt in the 1970s.
But Mr. Lieberman has been
scathing in his criticism of Presi-
dent Mahmoud Abbas of the Pal-
estinian Authority. He has called
for the ouster of Mr. Abbas and de-
nounced his campaign for upgrad-
ed Palestinian status at the United
Nations as “diplomatic terror-
ism.” He has also called for reduc-
ing Israel’s Arab population by
transferring Arab areas of Israel
to Palestinian control.
If he becomes defense minister,
Mr. Lieberman will replace Moshe
Yaalon, a Likud politician and for-
mer chief of staff of the Israeli mil-
itary.
Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition
zigzag has left Mr. Herzog’s Zion-
ist Union, an alliance of the Labor
Party and Tzipi Livni’s centrist
Hatnua, in turmoil. A leading La-
bor rival, Shelly Yacimovich, who
has been vocal in her opposition to
joining the Netanyahu coalition,
accused Mr. Herzog of shaming
the party by pursuing a deal.
Mr. Herzog said he had ceased
negotiating with Mr. Netanyahu
late Tuesday night after reaching
a dead end. He added that Ms.
Yacimovich, by openly opposing
an accord, should be held respon-
sible for Mr. Lieberman’s becom-
ing defense minister.
Finding himself on the defen-
sive, Mr. Herzog held two news
conferences on Wednesday. In the
second, he rebuffed calls in his
party to resign as Labor leader.
Mr. Lieberman, who was acquit-
ted in a longstanding corruption
case in 2013, has been an ally and a
fierce critic of Mr. Netanyahu.
Their parties ran together in the
2013 elections but separately in
2015. Yisrael Beiteinu shrank to
six seats in the Knesset from a
high of 15 in 2009. At the height of
coalition talks a year ago, Mr.
Lieberman shocked the political
establishment by announcing that
he would not join the new govern-
ment, saying he was choosing
principles over ministerial
portfolios.
The change came suddenly on
Wednesday when Mr. Lieberman,
speaking to reporters at noon,
challenged Mr. Netanyahu to
make him a serious offer to join
the coalition. “The prime minister
knows my phone numbers,” he
said.
The prime minister and Mr.
Lieberman met at 4 p.m.
In Shift, Israeli Leader Wants
Ultranationalists in Coalition
By ISABEL KERSHNER
JERUSALEM — A new,
French-led effort to end the Is-
raeli-Palestinian conflict has got-
ten off to a predictably con-
tentious start: The Palestinians
are in favor; Israel is strongly op-
posed.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls of
France is scheduled to arrive in Is-
rael this weekend, a week after
the French foreign minister, Jean-
Marc Ayrault, visited Ramallah to
update the Palestinians, and Jeru-
salem to try to get the Israelis on
board.
Mr. Valls has been granting in-
terviews to the Israeli news media
before his visit in an attempt to go
above the head of a reluctant Is-
raeli government and appeal di-
rectly to the public.
“We think that the status quo
works against the Israelis, the
Palestinians and peace,” Mr. Valls,
who is generally considered
friendly to Israel, told the Yediot
Aharonot newspaper.
Details of the French initiative
to move beyond the current stale-
mate have emerged slowly: There
was a plan for a meeting of inter-
ested foreign ministers to be held
in Paris, without the Israelis or
Palestinians in attendance. That
meeting was intended to lead to
an international conference to es-
tablish new parameters for nego-
tiating a Palestinian state along-
side Israel. President Mahmoud
Abbas of the Palestinian Author-
ity has welcomed the idea.
But that plan has already been
complicated by competing inter-
ests. These include internal Is-
raeli political machinations as
Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu seeks to broaden his right-
wing government, which rules
with a majority of one in the Israeli
Parliament; regional considera-
tions of neighboring states, in-
cluding Egypt; and an apparent
ambivalence by the Obama ad-
ministration, which has facilitated
previous rounds of Israeli-Pales-
tinian talks without success.
President François Hollande of
France said in a radio interview on
Tuesday that the meeting of for-
eign ministers scheduled for May
30 had been postponed because
Secretary of State John Kerry
could not attend.
Mr. Hollande said the meeting
would take place “in the course of
the summer,” without specifying a
new date.
Briefing reporters in Washing-
ton on Tuesday, the State Depart-
ment spokesman, John Kirby, said
the Americans were continuing to
talk with the French about a new
date.
“We are not going to turn up our
nose at any opportunity to have a
constructive dialogue and to per-
haps come up with ideas and solu-
tions to get us to a two-state solu-
tion,” he said.
Israel has been trying to turn
the Americans off the French
plan.
After meeting with the French
foreign minister in Jerusalem last
week, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I told
him that the only way to advance a
true peace between us and the
Palestinians is by means of direct
negotiations between us and
them, without preconditions.” He
added: “They simply avoid nego-
tiating with us as part of their de-
sire to avoid resolving the root of
the conflict, which is recognizing
the nation state of the Jewish peo-
ple, i.e. the state of Israel.”
Dore Gold, the director general
of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Af-
fairs and a close aide to Mr. Netan-
yahu, said the conference that
France was trying to convene
would “provide a new escape
route for Abbas to avoid direct
talks with Israel.”
Though France and Israel are
allies, Mr. Gold said, “there is a
disconnect on this issue.”
Speaking to reporters in the
West Bank city of Ramallah this
week, Rami Hamdallah, the Pales-
tinian prime minister, said, “Our
previous experiences directly ne-
gotiating with the current right-
wing Israeli government were in-
effective and redundant.”
The French effort aims to re-
solve a stalemate in the Israeli-
Palestinian peace process since
American-brokered talks col-
lapsed in acrimony in 2014.
Since then, international
players have been preoccupied
with other issues, including the
battle against the Islamic State.
But the Palestinians say that
more than 20 years of failed nego-
tiations have persuaded them to
seek a more international ap-
proach in their struggle for state-
hood.
Mr. Hamdallah said that more
than 20 countries had agreed to at-
tend the foreign ministers confer-
ence in Paris, and that the interna-
tional conference to follow would
set a timetable for negotiations
and, perhaps, a deadline for the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from
the occupied territories.
Mr. Hamdallah cited the accord
reached last year between world
powers and Iran on curbing its nu-
clear program as a guide for talks
to resolve longstanding disagree-
ments — “a model, actually,” he
said.
That analogy was not likely to
be welcomed by Israel, which ve-
hemently opposed the Iran deal.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestine
Liberation Organization official
and the Palestinians’ chief negoti-
ator, told Voice of Palestine Radio
on Wednesday that the French
had informed the Palestinians
that the meeting would be con-
vened in the first week of June, be-
fore the start of the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan.
Many Israelis were skeptical
that that would happen. Efraim
Inbar, an Israeli professor of po-
litical studies at Bar-Ilan Univer-
sity near Tel Aviv, said that “say-
ing ‘in the course of the summer’
is like saying ‘when the Messiah
will come.’”
In an additional twist, President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt
made an unusual appeal on Tues-
day for the Israelis and
Palestinians to make peace and
called for Israel’s fractious po-
litical parties to unite in an effort
to achieve that goal.
Many Israeli commentators
speculated that Mr. Sisi’s move
was somehow coordinated with
Mr. Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog,
the leader of the center-left Zionist
Union and the head of Israel’s par-
liamentary opposition, who has
been engaged in intense but ulti-
mately unsuccessful negotiations
over joining the government.
Both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr.
Herzog rushed to praise Mr. Sisi’s
appeal, and Israeli politicians and
analysts suggested that an alter-
native initiative for a regional con-
ference convened by Middle
Eastern leaders might be shaping
up behind the scenes.
But by Wednesday evening,
those plans seemed doomed after
Mr. Netanyahu met with Avigdor
Lieberman, to discuss the possi-
bility of Mr. Lieberman’s hard-line
Yisrael Beiteinu party joining the
government instead of Mr. Her-
zog, with Mr. Lieberman in the
role of defense minister.
At a news conference, Mr. Her-
zog said Mr. Netanyahu faced a
stark choice between “heading to
war and funerals” or “a journey of
hope” for Israel’s citizens.
French Plan for Mideast Talks Hits a Familiar Snag
By ISABEL KERSHNER
The French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, left, met Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, front right, on Sunday.
POOL PHOTO BY MENAHEM KAHANA
The Department of De-
fense has identified 15 Ameri-
can service members who
have died supporting the op-
eration to eliminate the Is-
lamic State militant group. It
confirmed the death of the
following American recently:
BAUDERS, David A., 25,
First Lt., Army; Seattle;
176th Engineer Company.
Names of the Dead
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