Holy Land Trip Day 3: On to Jordan

On Saturday we got up early and rushed to make one touristic stop in Nazareth before boarding a bus to cross the border into Jordan. We wanted to see the interior of the Church of the Annunciation, built on the spot where the angel is supposed to have come to Mary bearing tidings of the birth of Christ. It had been closed both of the previous evenings by the time we go into town, so we took 10 minutes between the time that it opened at 8 am and the time we had to be to our bus at 8:15 to see it.


VIEW OF NAZARETH WITH THE TOWER OF THE BASILICA OF THE ANNUNCIATION

It is a really interesting church. Very modern, but with some elements of old architecture in it. A smaller chapel behind the main church is constructed over what is supposed to be the site of Joseph's carpenter shop. In my opinion, at a certain point all of these associations become a bit ridiculous. How could we possibly know where Joseph's shop was? But there is something to making a pilgrimage to a spot and saying "This is where it happened," and knowing that thousands and thousands of other people thought the same thing on the same spot. I guess that's really the point.




INTERIOR OF THE DOME OF THE BASILICA OF THE ANNUNCIATION

Anyway, we made it to the bus, which was bigger than we expected, and full of Arabs making the border crossing. The border is very close to Nazareth, and we were there in about 30 minutes. It did not take too terribly long to cross, but of course we had to go through security and passport control twice: once to leave Israel, and once to enter Jordan. Plus we had to pay an exit and entry tax for each of the countries. We had purchased our Jordanian visas ahead of time, so we didn't have to mess with that line. The process was a pretty smooth one, and the most interesting part about it was watching the "pit crew" come out and change the license plates on all the buses over from Israeli to Jordanian. They just stack them on top of each other, and pull whichever one they need to the front when they hit the border. I suppose that's legal! We did have to wait about 30-45 minutes on the Israeli side, but we think it was because our bus driver was doing some duty-free shopping. At any rate, we got through without incident, and were able to convince the agents on both sides not to stamp our passports, since either an Israeli stamp or a Jordanian land border stamp would indicate we had been in Israel, and we would be denied entry to some other Arab countries in the future. We had already convinced the passport control gal at the airport not to stamp them, but they are never happy about it. They want to know why, where else you want to go, and what business you have there. It makes for a lot longer and more thorough questioning, but is potentially worth it.

One interesting border note: On the Jordanian side, a member of the Tourist Police boarded the bus and talked to us, then rode the 2 hours or so on into Amman with us, where he made sure we got a reliable taxi to the rental car service. They really really want to make sure that tourists are not treated badly because tourism is the only real source of income they have! (we thought they might have some oil, but we were told that is not the case).

Amman is big and dirty, dirty, dirty. Oh, and did I mention it is an absolute catastrophe in terms of driving? I don't think many tourists take the plunge. I'm basing this on the fact that the rental car place actually had my name written on their wall calendar for that day! We did make it through and out of the city alive, but I don't think Peter's heart will ever quite be the same. Just to illustrate what it was like, here is a sequence of events that took place within a minute of each other. First, an old man stepped into the road directly in front of Peter, who was already trying to negotiate three invisible lanes of traffic. He slammed on the brakes, swerved a little, and went on. Seconds later, some kids did the same thing! Again, the brakes, a swerve, luckily no sideswiping of another vehicle, and another sigh of relief. But literally 30 seconds later, a woman WITH A BABY stepped out! Unbelievable! My job as Navigator was anything but easy, but Peter definitely had the hard job.


YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH THE JORDANIAN PARKING POLICE!

Seeing the city, we were SO glad we had decided not to stay there in a hotel. Really, it just seemed pretty gross. But we did want to see some of the ancient ruins before heading out, so we drove to the center of town (again, big points for Peter) and miraculously found a parking spot directly in front of the famous Roman theater.



Then we climbed to the ancient acropolis (now called the Citadel). We had a bit of a hard time finding it, winding our way up through some pretty dismal back alleys and climbing stairs covered in broken glass and other trash. But finally we made it.

Amman was the capital of the Ammonite people (hence the name), but he most impressive ruins are, as usual, Roman and later. The massive Temple of Hercules towers over the city.


SOME RANDOM GUY IN THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES


SOME NOT-SO-RANDOM GUY IN THE TEMPLE OF HERCULES


VIEW OF MODERN AMMAN FROM THE ANCIENT ACROPOLIS

Also well worth seeing is the Umayyad palace (built in 750 AD and only used for 30 years!). The Umayyads were a Muslim dynasty, the second Arab Caliphate established after the death of Mohammad, for those of you who do not know -- and trust me, I didn't know until I moved to Turkey and started living in a building full of historians! It was an important empire though, the fifth largest ever in the history of the world in terms of land size and the percentage of the population of the world that it ruled over. The remains of impressive Umayyad buildings are dotted all over the Middle East, and this is a fine example.



We also planned to visit the Jordan Archaeological Museum on the acropolis. Inside we could have seen some Nabatean artifacts from Petra, among other things. Unfortunately, when we got there we discovered that the reason it had been so difficult to find the Citadel was that we had come in through an illegal back way and so had not purchased a ticket, so we could not get into the Museum. It was only 15 minutes to closing time, too late to go buy a ticket and come back, so we missed out on that.

But we were able to rush out of town (very slowly, in traffic), and make it to Madaba, a small town to the south of Amman.


SUNSET ON THE ROAD FROM AMMAN TO MADABA

Our goal was to get to town before the Church of St. George closed. The Church is built over the ruins of a much earlier church, from the time of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (ca 527 AD). The main attraction is a mosaic map which shows the area of the Holy Land, including Jerusalem in detail, as it was at that time. We did not in fact get there before the church closed for services, but I pleaded with the caretaker and he let us in for a few short minutes, and rolled back the rug so we could see the map and take photos. It is interesting, but not incredibly impressive. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that it was altered later by Muslims. Because the Koran includes a rule against representing living beings in art, medieval Muslims would sometimes alter antique mosaics by rearranging the tesserae so that the figures now appear "pixellated." That way, the beautiful decoration of the floor was retained, but the human and animal forms were no longer present. There are some very good examples of that work here. The guidebook we have says merely that the figures were "gouged out by later iconoclasts" which is clearly not true, and unfortunately glosses over the interesting reasons for the reworking of the art:



THE MOST FAMOUS SECTION OF THE "MADABA MAP": JERUSALEM


THE TWO FISHERMEN ON THE SEA OF GALILEE WHO WERE REWORKED IN THE "MADABA MAP"

Madaba is an interesting town that became somewhat important in the 19th century. It was at this time that a fairly large community of Arab Christians were forced out of nearby Kerak by the greater number of Muslims, and settled here. Today it is a mixed community of Muslims and Christians, but there is certainly a large number of churches for such a small town! The woman and her son who own the hotel we stayed in (The Black Iris, which is actually their family home converted for use as a small hotel) were apparently Christian. We guess this because she did not have her head covered, and because there were several crucifixes hanging on the walls, as well as a Christian fish symbol. The place was a bit drab, but they were incredibly friendly and helpful, and her homemade hummus for breakfast in the mornings was wonderful!

Madaba is a small town, but it is under construction everywhere, and is full of confusing roundabouts and one-way streets. In the two nights we spent there, we never ever really understood how to navigate it. We would set off, map in hand, to find some simple marked destination, and end up completely lost. Very frustrating. But it was still much better than Amman, and we had probably the best meal of the entire trip (cheap too!) in a restaurant there. Traditional middle eastern food, served on low couches in front of a crackling fire. Wonderful!

Holy Land Trip Days 1 and 2: The Galilee

We arrived in Israel, at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, on the afternoon of January 29th. The airport is gorgeous. The new terminal, which our friend Ilan tells us is called Terminal 2000 because it was supposed to be completed by 2000 (it was finished in 2005), looks exactly like we expected architecture here to look -- big blocks of white stone, shining in the desert sun. So imagine our surprise when we rented our car and exited the airport, only to discover that Israel is green, green, green!

Peter did an admirable job of driving in both Israel and Jordan, which is a good thing since I discovered at the counter of the rental car company that my license had expired on my birthday a month before. Oops! We only got lost once on the first day, when our only task was to find Nazareth, which would be our base of operations for visiting sites in Northern Israel. We made it through rush hour in Tel Aviv. It's a very attractive city, at least in parts, and from the passenger seat, I got to enjoy the futuristic architecture of the city:





We rolled into Nazareth just at 6:00 pm. We were greeted by the bells of the great Cathedral of the Annunciation (more about the church later). We found our hotel with only a little difficulty, and ventured out to eat. We were lucky to stumble on an absolutely wonderful restaurant that we returned to three times on our trip! We've traveled enough to know how lucky we were.

The next morning, we left bright and early, because we had outlined an ambitious itinerary of Biblical and Crusader sites in the area and we were not sure we could navigate well enough to find and see them all. But in the end we did, and with some time to spare! The Galilee area is gorgeous, lush, and very compact. It really bakes at other times of the year, but in the early spring of this fairly dry year, it was very pleasant.

Our first stop (ironically) was Megiddo, otherwise known as Armageddon (from Har Megedon, or "Mountain of Megiddo"), most famous for its prophesied role as the site for the Apocalyptic battle at the end of the world. It certainly is peaceful today, and we were early enough to be the first visitors and have it completely to ourselves:


THE PLAIN OF ARMAGEDDON, SURPRISINGLY GREEN



Megiddo lies at the head of the Jezreel valley, and by the 3rd millenium BC had been fortified. The Canaanites were there early, but were eventually overtaken by the Egyptians (in 1486 BC), who were then conquered (probably) by Solomon, who later lost the city to the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. Archaeologists have identified at least 20 successive settlements, built in layers. There was much of interest to see, but most striking were the stables for the horses, the discovery of which proved that people in this area fought with chariots at a very early date (which corroborates Biblical accounts) and the Canaanite tunnel dug from inside the city to a spring outside the walls:


THE STABLES. YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE THE POSTS BETWEEN HORSE STALLS


THE ENTRANCE TO THE UNDERGROUND WATER SYSTEM OF THE CANAANITES

The museum was small and silly, especially the diorama of the sacrificial site discovered here:


BIZARRE DIORAMA IN THE MUSEUM. DO ANY STAR WARS FANS THINK THE "PRIEST" LOOKS LIKE A TUSCAN RAIDER?

Next we traveled to Beth Alpha. This was the site of a 6th-century Jewish settlement and synagogue of which the mosaic floor has survived. It is a second-rate mosaic at best. Not really an impressive site, but the funny thing is that there is a sound and light show that they ran just for us (the only visitors). A screen drops down and they play a video and shine lights on different parts of the mosaic as they talk about them. The film is the story of the construction of the mosaic, and it's all about how the Rabbis of Beth Alpha didn't have enough money to put in a really good floor, so they had to hire a cut-rate hack artist. Talk about telling it like it is! Really, the only reason this site is as important as it is now is because the mosaic was discovered by some Jewish colonists who arrived in Israel in the 1920s after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and it gave them a tangible link to their past heritage.


THE SECOND-RATE MOSAIC


A SCENE FROM THE CHEESY MOVIE REMINDING US THAT IT'S A SECOND-RATE MOSAIC


A SCENE FROM THE MOSAIC: THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC. SEE THE RAM CAUGHT IN THE TREE? YES, THAT'S A RAM.

Next on the list was Beth Shean, an incredibly impressive site. Most of the monumental remains here date from the Roman period -- it is the best-preserved Roman city in Israel in fact, but the history of the site goes back much further. The Canaanites were here as well, 5000 years BC, followed as at Megiddo by the Egyptians.


A VIEW OF ROMAN BETH SHEAN FROM THE TOP OF THE ACROPOLIS

Here at Beth Shean, the house of the Egyptian governor has been discovered on the high acropolis overlooking the city. Imagine our surprise when we finished the climb and saw an Egyptian stele!:



The Philistines took Beth Shean in the 11th century BC, and Solomon took it from them (are you starting to see the pattern in this area?). Alexander the Great came through, conquered the area, and named this place Scythopolis, and the Romans kept that name when they took it in the 1st century BC. It was a major center of Byzantine Christianity until an earthquake in 749 all but destroyed it. The Biblical associations of the site are grim. It was on the neighboring mountain of Gilboa that Saul and his sons were killed in battle (or, in the case of Saul, committed suicide).


THE VALLEY AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT GILBOA (WE THINK)

The Bible says that the Philistines, when they found Saul's body the next day, cut off his head, stripped him, and "put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shean" (I Samuel 31:10). Archaeologists have found some remains of the walls from that bloody period:


ISRAELITE-PERIOD WALLS AT BETH SHEAN

Moving forward in time, we next visited the Crusader fortress of Bellevue. The name means, literally, "Beautiful view." On a clear day you can see across the Jordan river into Jordan. We did not have a clear day, unfortunately, but the view was still pretty spectacular. The ruins are of a fortress of the Knights Hospitallers, and are quite impressive:





From here, we were moving on to the sea of Galilee itself, to view some of the sites associated with the life and ministry of Christ. Along the way, we took a detour to visit the famous Yardenet Baptism Site, where thousands of people come every year to be baptized in the Jordan, supposedly near the site of Christ's own baptism. It is so commercialized as to be almost offensive. Really, it's a store and restaurant where they will "rent" you a baptismal robe for $10 and will only allow you to touch the water if you have paid. Some religious experience! Here's a nice picture of the Jordan though. And luckily, the other sites we visited were more interesting.



First was Tabkha, an area on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that hosts three churches almost side-by-side, each built on what has been identified as a site where Christ delivered an important sermon and/or performed a miracle. The first is the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. Although the church was built in 1890, the mosaic (including the loaves and fishes), are from the 5th century.



Beside it is the Church of the Primacy of Peter, marking the spot where Christ appeared to the Apostles after the Resurrection. It is a striking building, constructed by the Franciscan order out of black basalt. Here we also went down to the waters of the Sea of Galilee for the first time.






A VIEW ACROSS THE SEA OF GALILEE FROM THE CHURCH






I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF CREATURES THESE ARE, BUT APPARENTLY THEY ARE IN THE BIBLE. I DON'T REMEMBER THEM TALKING, THOUGH!

Higher on the hill behind these two churches is an absolutely gorgeous structure, the Church of the Beatitudes. While we waited for a large group of Korean tourists to finish taking their pictures inside the church, we read some of the Sermon on the Mount from the little New Testament we carried along with us. Wherever the Sermon was delivered along the Sea, it was a very beautiful spot!





From here we drove a short distance to Capernaum, at the northern shore of the Galilee. It is a strange site. According to the Bible, it was to here that Christ came when he left Nazareth as a young adult, and it served as the focus of his ministry in the Galilee area. It was also the hometown of several of the Disciples. The remains of a very early house-church were excavated here, which was then naturally identified (whether correctly or not) with the house of Simon Peter, who the Bible says was a local. A church was constructed directly on top of the excavations, elevated above it, and you can look down through a glass floor to see the house below. The result is kind of a space-age looking church that seems ready to take off.






YOU CAN'T REALLY SEE MUCH OF "PETER'S HOUSE" THROUGH THE GLASS FLOOR OF THE CHURCH, BUT HERE IT IS

Other interesting excavations here include a synagogue reliably dated to the time of Christ, and therefore called the Synagogue of Christ, since it may be assumed that he attended temple here during his time here. Capernaum is small, but well worth a visit. It was interesting to us for another reason as well, for it was here that we first encountered several busloads of Nigerians. Little did we know that we would see more and more groups of them practically everywhere we went in Israel. Apparently the pilgrimage to the Holy Land is extremely popular in Nigeria! And boy do they like to sing!



After leaving Capernaum we rushed to another point on the shore of the Sea, back to the south, to a little Kibbutz (an type of settlement where many young Israelis go to live and do manual labor in a communal atmosphere for a year or so of their lives) called Kibbutz Ginosar. Near here, amateur archaeologists discovered a fishing boat in the Sea of Galilee. Luckily, they called in the professionals, and a team was able to retrieve the boat from the water and it is now on display in a very attractive museum here. We arrived after closing, but the woman at the desk was kind enough to let us in.



The boat has been dated to roughly the time of Christ. So of course the question is, was it one of the boats that he or his disciples rode in? In reality, probably not. But it does illustrate the type of boats they were working with.

By the time we left the boat museum, it was starting to get dusky. On our way back to Nazareth we missed a turn and ended up taking the scenic route. That was fine, because we got to at least wave at several other interesting sites in the landscape:

Mt. Tabor and the plain below it, where Deborah and Barak defeated the armies of Sisera and the Canaanites. The settlements nearby are still called Daburiyya and Ahuzzat Barak after them.

We also drove by, but did not photograph because it was getting dark, the Kibbutzes of Nain, where Jesus healed the widow's son (Luke 7:11-17) and Endor, the home of the witch that Saul consulted in Samuel 28:3-19 (now known as Ein Dor).

It's safe to say that by the time we made it back to Nazareth we were completely steeped in Biblical associations!

An Afternoon in the West Bank

As many of you know, Peter and I have had the important opportunity to observe reactions to the war in Gaza while here in Istanbul. Events which are no more than concerning news items to many people around the world have been of vital importance to several of our friends and colleagues here, some of whom have family living in Israel, or even children currently serving in active duty in the Israeli military. The conflict has been the source of discussion, and occasionally some disagreement, among the Fellows here at the Research Institute.

We have also watched with interest and concern the pro-Palestinian rallies that for several weeks took place on a daily basis, sometimes two or three times a day, on the street outside our residence. Many of these had overtly anti-Semitic overtones, as well as elements of anti-American propaganda.

Many of you are also aware that we had planned a trip to Israel and Jordan before the war broke out. We watched the developments closely, wondering whether we should call off the trip or go ahead with it. At the advice of our Israeli friends, and after exchanging several emails with the U.S. Consular offices in Jerusalem, we decided to make the trip. By the time we departed for Israel, the situation in Gaza had calmed down somewhat. Nevertheless, the Consulate told us that although there were no restrictions in place for non-diplomatic U.S. citizens, it "could not recommend" that we do three things (and had forbidden its own staff from doing them): 1) take lodging inside the Old City of Jerusalem, 2) enter the Muslim Quarter of the Old City on Friday afternoon, or 3) enter Palestinian territory in the West Bank. In the end, we did all of these things.

We will write about our experiences in Jerusalem in later posts. But I feel that it is important that we share our experiences in the West Bank first. Partly this is because I want to do it while it is still fresh in my memory, and partly because I am still struggling to make sense of what we saw and experienced, and writing always seems to help with that process. It is not overstating the case to say that our few brief hours there have affected us deeply, enhanced our understanding, but also shifted our viewpoints regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That being said, I am not writing this to forward a particular political viewpoint. I hope that this will be read by many of my friends and family members, some of whom will have very different views of the political situation. I am certainly not wishing to offend anyone with this. I also understand that although this experience has given me a vantage point from which to speak about the situation that I did not have before, I am not an expert on the politics of the conflict. I realize that I am susceptible to emotional manipulation, and that not everything that was told to us by the Palestinians that we spoke with may be completely true, or can possibly be unbiased. But I believe that it is still important that it be heard:

Last Saturday, we took a "servees" (an Arab shared taxi) from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank. Since these are vans that regularly carry mostly Arabs with Israeli ID cards, who are free to move between Israeli and Palestinian territory, they may bypass the military checkpoints, which potentially saved us a lot of time spent in a taxi sitting at the border. We arrived in Bethlehem in the early afternoon and had a nice lunch in Manger Square, facing the Church of the Nativity, which commemorates the supposed site of the birth of Christ. The town is pleasant and quiet (at least currently, since tourism is way down). The main public building on the square is the Bethlehem Peace Center. Bethlehem is a town that desperately wishes to be associated with peace.

Our first stop was the Church. Outside the building, as at most tourist sites around the world, license tour guides offered their services. 'Only 40 shekels; (about $10). No, we didn't need a guide. '30 shekels.' No, thank you. '20 shekels.' Only later did we realize how desperate the survival situation has become for many of the Palestinians living here, and we wished we had taken a guide that we didn't need.

Although in other seasons, and in other years, Bethlehem has been a major site of pilgrimage for tourists from around the world, while we were there we saw only a few tour groups: one small group from the United States, some Germans, and a larger group of Nigerians. They crowded into the small grotto underneath the church with a bronze star on the floor marking the site of the Nativity, and sang "Silent Night." This is a scene that is probably repeated hundreds of times a year on this spot, and we could not help but note the irony. "All is calm, all is bright...Sleep in heavenly peace." After maybe an hour in this church and the one next door with a grotto puported to be the study (and tomb) of St. Jerome, the tour groups were hustled back onto their buses and back to Jerusalem.

Leaving behind the tour groups, who never ventured off the main square, we walked further into town to visit the Milk Grotto. Legend has it that this cave was the site where Mary and the infant Jesus hid from Herod's soldiers, before the Flight into Egypt. It is said that a drop of Mary's breast milk fell onto the ground when she was nursing Christ, and turned the rocks of the cave white. The chalky powder scraped from the walls and ceiling is sold as a remedy for lactation problems and female infertility. While we were walking to this church, we were approached by a young Palestinian man who offered to be our guide, no charge, if we would come visit his shop after we were done looking around. I had planned to do some shopping in Bethlehem anyway, being interested in purchasing some of the beautiful olivewood sculptures made locally, so we agreed.

It soon became clear that this young man, Said, was not your average salesperson. Often in our travels we have encountered these "guides" who know the very basic facts of a site, often less than is in the general guidebook, or who are only passing on confused information they have heard from other guides, hoping for a small fee or a visit to their shop. Said, however, was extremely knowledgeable about Bethlehem and the surrounding area, and particularly about the history of the Roman period of Palestine under Herod. He said that he would like to work as a tour guide for all of Israel, but that it is impossible for him to get the papers that would allow him to leave the West Bank.

We left the Milk Grotto and accompanied Said to the small store where he works, where we were greeted by an older man and woman (family?), offered tea, and shown various examples of the local sculpture. While we picked out our purchases, we began talking to the three about their experiences living in the West Bank. What had started as a typical middle eastern shopping experience quickly turned more serious. Tourism is down they said. It was already low before, but now, with the war in Gaza, no one comes to Bethlehem. When they do come, they come only in a group, on a bus. The tour operators used to walk the groups through town, bring them to the small shops on the side streets. They no longer do that, but rush their groups into and out of the two main churches and back to Jerusalem. No one is selling anything. No one has money. They have no way to make money, no way to support their families.

But it is not only the loss of revenue, of livelihood, that concerns these people. As the older shop owner related, 'I love the Jewish people. I speak better Hebrew than I do Arabic. They were my neighbors, my brothers. They were my best friends when I was growing up. We lived next to each other.' Now, the only Jewish people living in the area are in the walled settlements. They no longer have daily contact with the Palestinian people living here. With the division of the land has come a loss of community, and a great alienation for the Palestinians.


ONE OF THE ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK

Our hosts are eager to know what the view of the war in Gaza is in the outside world. When we tell them that there are many people around the world concerned about the situation, they are happy. Said says, 'This is the only thing that keeps us going -- knowing the world is thinking about us.' Then he asks us if we will come with him to visit the wall. He will call his cousin to come and drive us there.

At first we are skeptical. After all, it is hardly the safest thing to go in a vehicle with someone you have barely met in a foreign country. But we have a good feeling about Said, and he is genuinely concerned that we see the wall, so we decide to do it. While we wait for our ride, I talk more with the female shopkeeper. I ask how the war in Gaza has affected them, since we had not felt during the rest of our trip that it was affecting northern Israel at all, except perhaps in a slight decrease in tourism. "It is peaceful here," she says. "We don't see anything. We only wake sometimes in the morning and hear that soldiers came in the night and took some people."

Said's cousin arrives in a 20-year-old, beat-up white sedan. There is no handle on the passenger door on my side, so I crawl in the other side. The two young Palestinians laugh and call it a "classic car." They drive us across town to the limits of their world, the Israeli wall. It is covered in graffiti, and we want to take pictures. "We can't stop here," Said tells us, "there are security cameras and they will wonder why we are looking at the wall. We'll drive to an area where we can stop."

The wall, of course, is the barrier constructed by Israel beginning in 2002 to stop the suicide bombings and shootings of civilians in Israeli towns that were being carried out by Palestinian terrorists. While the politics of the barrier and its route are complicated, there is no doubt that it has been effective in decreasing suicide attacks, saving the lives of an unknown number of Israelis. The question that must now be answered is whether it is the most effective way to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, and at what cost to the Palestinian people. Again, I am no expert on the politics or the history of this conflict, and I am not attempting here to sway anyone's political opinion, but it was clearly of critical importance to Said that we visit the wall with him, and that we hear his story and share it with others. So I will let him speak for himself, and post here our photos of the wall:

"This is the cage of the Palestinian people. You would need wings to get over this wall."


THE BLUE LINE RUNS THE LENGTH OF THE WALL IN BETHLEHEM AND REFLECTS ONE GRAFITTI ARTIST'S DREAM THAT THE WALL SHOULD BE SO HIGH.


THE WALL SEEN THROUGH THE REAR WINDOW OF THE CAR, WITH A STICKER ON THE GLASS







"We have no cars. We have no nightclubs. We have no girlfriends. We have no life."


A YOUNG PALESTINIAN STANDS IN FRONT OF THE WALL.







"We are Palestinians. We can do anything -- we can do it for the entire world. But we don't have the chance."

















Who do the Palestinians blame for the state of their lives? Completely contrary to what I would have expected, we heard over and over, from different Palestinians that we talked to, that they do not blame the people of Israel. Just as the shop owner misses the mixed community of Jews and Palestinians that he once enjoyed, Said says of the current conflict, "It is not the people that cause this problem, but the governments."

Also, contrary to what we have often been told by the media, many of the Palestinians are not buying the line that Hamas is trying to feed the world -- that they are the saviors of the Palestinian people, defending their rights against the Goliath of the Israeli state. Says Said, "Hamas and the directors do not care about any living Palestinian. They only care about staying in charge. They are like gangsters, with guns." He urges us to tell our friends that if they are sending aid to Palestine, make sure it does not go to an organization that will pass any of it on to Hamas. He is convinced that none of that money ever reaches the people. He wishes more people understood that, and that if they want to help, they would send money to organizations like the Red Crescent.

I am sure, of course, that there are Palestinians who feel differently, and the situation may very well be different in Gaza, where the struggle to survive has become even more immediate than for those in the West Bank who are losing their livelihood but not necessarily their lives. But it was very striking to us that continually the Palestinians were talking about a reconciliation with their Jewish neighbors that could be brought about on the level of the people, although they have no faith than any government or politician can, or will, do it (not even Obama, although they are optimistic about him in general). This complete lack of ill will towards the Jewish people on the part of the Palestinians we talked with makes the often anti-Semitic rallies that we have seen in Istanbul all the more tragic. It seems that the Palestinian people are being used as a banner by anti-Israeli groups whose ultimate goals do not reflect what many average Palestinians would wish for.

The few hours that we spent in the West Bank gave us much food for thought, and I certainly have not reached any conclusions yet. I look forward to conversations with friends and colleagues about these issues, and we welcome the posting of any comments that those of you who are reading this may have.