Politics: Days 6, 7 & partial 8

I apologize for the tardiness of posts. Getting to a reliable internet connection is difficult when we are running from 7am to 10 PM. I can only take the time today since I didn't go with the group because of the disease I am carrying (and spreading to the group - more later) and could find a real internet cafe where I have the time to write, and not worry about being cut off. The hotels (which are exceedingly expensive anyway) make you buy the time in advance, and it just cuts you off when your time is up. If you want more, you have to go purchase it and come back to the computer. I found an internet cafe on Jaffa Street where I get all the time I want, and I pay less than 1/3 the price. At least now I'm sympathetic to Levantine seeing how much time it takes to get a reasonable blog done. Now back to business.

Wednesday - Day 6
We got on the bus to go to the Separation fence near Bethlehem and Gilo. This is in the southern section of Jerusalem, within the "Municipal Borders" but in the "West Bank". Real estate is very special and confusing here, as everyone gets VERY caught up in blocks, yards, and feet. In this area, Gilo is a neighborhood built outside the Green Line (The 1949 Armistice line), but inside the municipal area of Jerusalem. Of course, they never told us when this municipal boundry was decided, but this is still very close to the downtown part of Jerusalem, still south and west of the old city, The barrier here is a tall cement barrier, with additional 12 foot "Jersey Walls" on the Gilo side. It seem the people who were on the Palestinian side were using high-power rifles to shoot across the valley into people's apartments. Not fun to have a potshot taken out of your refrigerator. The closeness of the opposing sides is beyond belief. It is as if people from DC were shooting across Western Avenue into Chevy Chase, Maryland. Welll, maybe they do, but not too often.
We had a lecture by a talking head, Neil Lazarus concerning the problems of the city and how the Israelis are _mostly_ building along the western side of the city, north and south, but still in formerly Jordanian occupied territory.
Having said that, we spoke about the newer plans for building more on the eastern side of the city. This is the most recent controversy relating to the announcement just prior to Biden's trip here. We spoke of the 45 minute dressing down Hillary gave to Bibi, and noted that this was also a significant snub BY the United States since it was the Sec. of State talking to the Prime Minister, not head of state to head of state. By the time I am writing this on Friday morning, most of it seems to have died down, since we have moved on to other flash points.

We went into the Old City, surrounded by the new walls built in 1570 something by Sulieman the Great. We went to the Westen Wall and saw how the men's side had significantly expanded crowding out the women. I watched in amusement as 3 cleaning guys scraped the written messages out of the wall. Maybe a message/prayer has a expiration time and they have to redo them. We went down the tunnel along the rest of the Western wall, which is still under the Arab sections of the city. The excavations go down 30 feet or more back to the earliest settlements of Jerusalem and the building of the Temple by Herod. Coming out of the tunnel in the Arab section, we had an armed guard escorting us back to the Jewish Quarter. The people in the shuk (stores) seemed somewhat dumbfounded by all this, but they are not the problem. They are just trying to make a shekel.

After lunch we went to the Davidson Center, exploring the excavations along the South wall of the Temple Mount. This was the main entrance to the Temple in Biblical days, and we saw the fallen stone from the southwest corner that was inscribed, "Here is the place to call the people to prayer". There was more in the museum that we missed because of time restraints. Ann & I had seen in in 2004 when we were here. There had been a very cool 3D presentation of the history of the site from a hill to the 1st Temple to the 2nd Temple to the present-day mosque and Dome of the Rock.

At the end of the day, we gathered back in the hotel for a presentation by Yoel Hassan, one of the youngest members of the Kinesset, and one of the founders of the Kadima Party. This is the centrist party founded by Ariel Sharon to try to bridge the divides. He was one of Sharon's "Kiddie Corp" as many of that government's functionaries were young (in the 20's). He gave us 45 minutes talking about strengthening education for all, electoral reform of the Israeli system, criticizing Bibi, and approving a 2 state solution. He was actually very persuasive, and might be a significant rising star. We also heard from a fellow Sharon graduate, Oren Magnezy, who had more time to give us. Most of the group remained interested/awake throughout the 2 hour session, but there few a few drop-outs.

Thursday Day 7

Long drive to Tel Aviv. We went to Independence Hall, where the State was established in May 1948. This was on the very spot of the first house of Tel Aviv, built on the sand dunes outside Jaffa in 1909 by Meyer Diezengoff who later became Mayor. They spoke about the War of Independence and how Israel absorbed the refugees from the war in Europe and the refugees from the arab lands immediately after. Very moving.
Lunch in Jaffa, and on to the new Rabin Center. This was a pretty well done exhibit detailing his life and death. It started with a large video from the rally just before he was shot, talking about how Peace was the only answer. There was an audio-visual tour, where your headphones picked up the sound in front of each pane/video and played the appropriate section. It worked, mostly. There were videos of his life, and the events in Israel at each point. The video of his speech from the White House lawn when he and Arafat signed the Oslo Agreement with Clinton showed portions of the Seeds of Peace delegation, including Joel Bloom and Tim Wilson who were instrumental in setting up and running the camp (formerly Camp Powhatan. Go Gray!!!) We had a spirited discussion afterward with a member of the museum staff who was accompanying us until time restraints again got in the way.
Dinner was in a restaurant called Maganda in Jaffa, a wonderful Yemenite restaurant. The walls were covered with old photos of the founder's family from 80-100 years ago, and how the restaurant was started in the 60's by the father of the present owner. The food was good, too, with salads fist (Always Salads!) followed by kabobs of meat and chicken and baklava for desert. Oren Magnezy joined us again (it was his birthday) and we spoke more of the politics.

Friday Day 8

I am sick. I have been sneezing for the past 2 days, and now have the full crud. I did not go with the group to Yad Vashem today, but hopefully will get to join them for Shabbat.