CITE ETTADAMUN, Tunisia — North African slum dweller Salema breaks down and sobs as she recalls the price her family paid for her sons’ dream of a better life.

FROM THEIR TENTS outside a service station, evacuees from the former Jewish settlement of Elei Sinai in Gaza watch in dismay as Israeli troops reenter territory that was once home.

“Kill him, dammit, that’s your entire order. Get him over there, shoot him.”   Fatima Bazorkina was watching the evening news when she heard a Russian general give this order. The general was ordering the execution of a young man just detained by the Russian forces.