Holy Land, Holy Sh....Moley

We went, we saw, we certainly didn't conquer, although it seems that almost everyone else did, and many are still trying.

I have been back for over a week now, but my travels still reverberate through my mind and body.  I had a dream about being in Jerusalem again last night, so I can see how emotional the trip was.  It was not only emotional, it was confusing and my ideas are still not resolved.

It was fascinating, yet depressing.  The country of Israel is thriving.  It's people are friendly, for the most part, industrious, proud and scared.  Yet, it seems to me, that they are confronted with a huge problem and their solution, so far, has been to ignore it.  What makes it worse, is that the problem is not really of their own making, and they cannot solve it by themselves, yet they are making it worse.

We travelled all over the country.  We saw many, too many, ancient sites.  That piece of land has had 4,000 years of invasions.  The ones I can remember include the Canaanites, the Hittites, Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans,the Byzantines,  the Muslims, the Crusaders, the Muslims again, the Crusaders again, the Muslims again, The Ottomans, the British and the Israelis. I am sure I am leaving some out and probably got some of the order wrong.

Jerusalem is an amazing city, but to me it seemed to be taken over by salesman selling schlock to the millions of touring pilgrims who come from all over the world.  Three major religions fight over the square mile of the Holy City, and there are many soldiers with automatic weapons who have to keep the peace.

I will write more in a couple of days as I have more time to think about all I saw and felt, but I am left feeling a bit sad.  We were able to talk to many different people, mostly because of the tour guide, who was marvelous.  We spoke to a Christian Arab, who is an Israeli citizen. We spoke to some Orthodox Jews.  We spoke to a Druze family.  We spoke to Palestinian who had no passport and no country.  We spoke to a Bedouin, who is an Israeli citizen.  We spoke to other Israelis on the street.  I was left with the feeling that the Jews have about seven different sects and positions and they have a great deal of trouble agreeing.  The Arabs have about eleven different sects and opinions and they often resort to killing each other.  There are huge differences between the Arabs and the Israelis and they hardly talk to each other at all.

Everyone is dug in.  Everyone feels they have been wronged.  Everyone feels they have history and God on their side.  Everyone is right to some degree

But my feeling is; "So What?"  What are you going to do now.
No one knows.
So things go on.  There has been tension in the region since the British took over at the end of the first world war, a hundred hears ago.  It feels like it can continue for another hundred years.