Saturday, June 18, 2005

A Blog Before Supper

This hotel has wireless, so I thought I would share a few quick thoughts on Israel.

I tend to be paranoid (which doesn’t necessary mean that people aren’t out to get me), so I’ve been a little tense these last couple of days. Yesterday we went through the West Bank quite a bit: Jericho and down along the Jordan river. We swam in the Dead Sea and stayed in Bedouin country in the south (Arad). Then today we lunched, shopped and toured in Bethlehem, which is Palestinian controlled.

I feel like the situation here politically has come into even better focus, and I’ll share sometime. I know it’s not spiritual, but the main thing I was thinking in the Church of the Nativity was, “Just think, there were Palestinians holed up in here in a standoff with the Israelis just two years ago.” “Just think, there are bullet holes in the side of this church.”

It was just bizzare as we road down along the Jordan River. I kept thinking as we went. Just think, Janin is just a few miles to the west of us. The Israelis mowed down houses there a couple years ago. Okay, just think, Nablus (Shechem) is just a few miles to the west of us now. That's where they mowed down a bunch of stuff. Or just think, now we're passing Ramallah where Arafat was holed up for so long.

It was just bizarre. The walk from here to there is no big deal--it's just space. But the significance of the space from here to there is unbelievable and sometimes deadly.

Well time for supper. More later…

2 comments:

pk said...

You spoke well of the "significance of the space". I would venture to say that the "significance per square kilometer" is at a higher rating in that land than anywhere else. I mean seriously, everything is SO close together and SO much has happened there. Enjoy being completely incapable of taking it all in ;-)

Ken Schenck said...

Today has to have been the quintessential example. You're at the wailing wall. There are all these orthodox Jews everywhere. Women can't go on the one side and the men who do have to have some sort of covering. Then you go up to the temple mount by a ramp, walk through a narrow door, and on top are Muslims everywhere in the Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. "Flocks" of women in Muslim veils coming down the stairs. Very bizarre.