Mark's Web Site: A quiet place with just a bit of pretension.

Our guide is an outgoing man who has been leading visitors through Jerusalem for nearly forty years. He is obviously proud of his homeland and his city. He served his military duty during the Six Day War of 1967 and still maintains his status as an auxilary policeman. But my experience is troubled by the overriding presence of "the other". It is an exposure to a world of separateness that I have never seen so blatant as it exists here in Israel.

The highway from Tel Aviv could be any road in any country. It passes the airport and soon begins to rise into the hills. Eliav takes an early exit so we can drive through the hills to the north of Jerusalem. The country is thickly forested, the result of a prolonged reforestation effort by the Israelis. I wonder why it is that even though these trees survive they had not naturally seeded themselves in the area. Perhaps the old forests were harvested to the point that no critical mass of seed stock remained. Anyway, the trees are beautiful and thick ... for a ways.

We pass the 'Green Line', the pre-1967 boundary between Israel and Jordan which is still manned by the Israeli military. The landscape noticably changes into what I had come to expect as 'Holy Land' terrain. The hills are rocky and sparsely covered with scrub brush. The highway cuts reveal stratifications of ancient sea bed deposits that are neither contorted nor tilted. It seems the land has lifted straight out of the ocean. We can see for several kilometers in each direction ... housing, grazing land, green valleys, and orchards. It is winter and it has been unusually rainy this year. The land flourishes because of it.

Our view begins to become obscured by a high wall that has been erected on either side of the highway. We notice that some access roads have large concrete blocks in them, preventing vehicles from coming into the highway. Eliav explains that Palestinian Arabs are not allowed to travel on this road, and the roads to their villages must be blocked. I have heard that a new law now prevents Israeli Arabs from transporting Palestinian Arabs, thus shutting off one of the work arounds for those Arabs who need to use the highway to get to work. The justification offered by Eliav is the usual, protection from the few Arabs who would create chaos. There is no opening for hospitality when it represents a threat to your life.

Further on up the road Eliav points out Modi'in, a new town rising from the hills that will house the young, upwardly mobile of the growing Israeli economy. He is obviously proud of this new growth. Yet on the other side of the highway, Palestinian villages present a stark contrast behind barbed wire fences, walls, and Army posts.

We come into Jerusalem by climbing Mt. Scopus and take in a wonderfully panoramic view of the city. Eliav points out the highlights of the old city and we begin to sense the ancient holiness of this place. So many have come here for so long to experience the essence of their relationship to God. It is hard to comprehend the profoundness of its meaning. Nowhere else on the planet can we find so many holy places for so many of the world's great religions.

We take the road down into the old city, stopping by a shop that sells olive wood carvings. I notice some antiquities and inquire about a figurine of Astarte. It is a full faced figure dated to the 7th - 8th century BCE. The price is well beyond my means for such a thing and the insistence of the shop owners to negotiate with me begins to raise my ire. It is normal to do business like this in most parts of the world, and yet I have never grown accustomed to it. I need to find a way to engage merchants without taking personal affront at their persistence. Most of the world is not a mall where people browse quietly in their own thoughts. Engaging in business is an active process of building personal relationship - it is an act of hospitality. I have a lot to learn from these people.

We proceed on to the Old City. The way our guide usually takes is blocked by police because of a planned demonstration by Muslims over the excavation of a pathway to the al-Hasqa mosque. The walkway apparently was in dire need of repair after being washed out by the rains. The Muslims fear that the digging will jeopardize the foundation of their third holiest site, the place where Muhammed ascended to heaven. Our guide accedes that the timing of the project could have been better. As we park the van, we can hear speakers addressing the protesters over loud speakers.

We enter the city through Zion Gate. Eliav relates the history of the War for Independence when Israeli soldiers used this gate trying to liberate 1700 Jews being held in the Jewish Quarter. Their effort failed and they had to agree to remove all Jews from Jerusalem in the manner of Arab prisoners, with their heads lowered. In 1968, after Israel recaptured Jerusalem, the soldiers of the Six Day War met with their counterparts from twenty years earlier at this gate. They met with their heads raised. A plaque memorializes their meeting.

We pass through the Armenian Quarter and enter the Jewish Quarter. The streets are narrow and there are many locals about tending to their final business before Shabat begins at sundown. We stop for lunch at a wonderful little hummus stand and we are graciously hosted by the owner. The shawarma is delicious and inexpensive - I wasn't crazy about the french fries in my sandwich, though. During lunch I can hear gunfire and small expolsions. No one seems anxious about it so I continue the lunch conversation.

Our group is a rare mix of international folks. We are all taking a training together and we'll be here for two more weeks. There are three Indians, one Sri Lankan, two Uzbekis, and a Pole working in Surinam. I am the only American. This is the global face of technology. Those who believe that American technology jobs are going overseas need to understand that the growth of technology is overseas. Our infrastructure is mature and requires little attention. The countries where these men work are building infrastructure ... and they are building it using the most current technology available. It will not be long before North America finds itself in need of a complete overhaul of its networks, just to keep up with the rest of the world.

After lunch we head over to the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall. This remaining section of wall is all that is left from the substructure that was Temple Mount during the time of the Second Temple. That Temple was destroyed by the Romans after the Maccabean Rebellion in 70 CE. The Jews were exiled from Judea then and did not return as a people until 1948. From the Jewish perspective, this is a critical time in the course of their history. The first exile, in 587 BCE, took place after they were conquered by the Babylonians. In those days, the way to destroy a faith was to destroy its temple. The First Temple, built by Solomon, was the center of Jewish faith for five centuries before its destruction. What makes the Jews such an important part of religious development is that their faith survived the exile. Typically a defeated people would assimilate into the conquering culture. But the Jews kept their faith in Babylon and eventually returned with it to Jerusalem. It seems there are still those who believe that you can destroy a person's faith by destroying their places of worship. Witness the bombing of Baghdad mosques and the burning of Southern churches. But we have learned from the Jews and our faith carries on to rebuild those places. The true holiness lives in our hearts.

The Western Wall is closed to us today. We stand in the walkway above the parking lot to view the Wall. To its left there is a temporary walkway build for use during the construction of the new one. At the top I notice soldiers gathered in the gateway to Haram al-Sharif, the compound that contains both al-Hasqa and the Dome of the Rock. More soldiers are donning their flak jackets in the parking lot below. Several orthodox Jews are standing at the fence saying their prayers. Eliav talks about rebuilding the Jewish Temple. He says the attitude of about 80% of the country is "we've waited two thousand years, we can wait two thousand more." I am afraid, though, that it is not the 80% who will influence the final outcome, it is the 20% ... the 20% on each side of the battle. You see, I don't discount fundamentalists of any faith, including Christianity, from pushing nations over the brink in order to achieve a religious objective. And the 80% will only be awakened by the catastrophe that results when the radicals' goals are realized.

A trek through the Muslim and Christian markets and we find ourselves at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Sepulchre itself is just below Golgotha, actually down a flight of stairs. I had presumed that it was a greater distance away. All of the places are so encrusted with centuries of religious paraphenalia that it is hard for me to sense the spirit of the place. I feel like we have inherited this faith with all of its trappings from two millenia. Oh right, we have.

On our way out of the city, I ask Eliav if he had heard any of the news broadcasts that were on in the marketplace. I assumed they were talking about the events of the day. He either hadn't heard or he wanted to avoid the conversation. As we left the Old City my phone rang. Christina had just woken up to the news of the fighting in Jerusalem on BBC and she was concerned for my safety. I assured her it was well contained and that we could not have gotten close to any danger. Yet I still have images of school children happily playing on their way home, mothers and fathers shopping for Shabat, old men talking quietly on the narrow streets of the Jewish Quarter when, just a half kilometer away, people are being treated to tear-gas and concussion grenades.

This was a rapid-paced trip to Jerusalem. It is enough to convince me that I have to return for a much longer period of time in order to experience the holiness that I had sought today. The tension that runs under the surface will always be there. Eliav reminded us that Jerusalem has not known a day of peace in five thousand years. And why does that have to be??