Well...the last 24 hours have been quite exciting....its amazing how  much can happen and one can get done in 24 hours whne travelling.   Being on the road for 3 weeks is a first for me...and I have to admit...I do like it over the 2 week trips.

Well, after I last wrote....I went home for Gadi and Elyashiv to come home.  They decided they wanted to go out with some of their friends and take me to Jerusalems only gay night club.  However, they warned me that it does have occasional attacks by both Muslim groups and Orthodox Jewish Groups.  I opted to go of course...What a great club and great people.  They had a Disney Night Drag Show which was a hoot.   I met a lot of great people there.  I did not get home until 4 am.  On the way home I decided to stop to get money out of the ATM...what happened next got me all worked up.   The machine ate my card and did not give me any money!   But there was nothing I could do until this morning.

This morning I woke  up after  4 hours of sleep obssesing about my ATM card and how I was goingto get money for the last few days.  I got to the bank and only a few people spoke a little English. I explained my situation and they were able to get the card out of the machine for me. I was quite relieve.   After settling down from that....I decided to venture to Bethlehem.  Now several people warned me not to go...and I can see now why they gave me those warning.  Bethlehem is in the West Bank Palestinain Authority.   I knew that Jewish people would not go there...so I ventured into the Arabic part of Jerusalem and found the bus to Bethlehem.  I have to admit...I was very naive about the whole West Bank Issue.The bus takes you as far as the border and then you have to walk through a secure crossing.  Bethlehem as well as the wEst BAnk are behind a huge armored wall...it is like the old Berlin Wall.  As I crossed into the Bethlehm...I was greeted by graffiti saying "NO USA"   "We are not terrorists"  "USA=Money, Israel=Apartheid"   "Free Palestine".  I kid you not, there really were Palestian IDF with the black ski masks and shot guns running around.   I was very nervous and very uneasy.  I befriended a Palestinian whose name was Naif...the deal was he would show me around Bethlehem and insure my safety in exchange for $15.....Perhaps you may think I was foolish...but I took him up on the offer as I felt very unsafe and very unwelcomed there.   In the end it turned out to be interesting...he informed me that hardly any tourists ever come there and pracitcally not an American in the last 5 years.  He said the situation is very bad and the palestinian people are poor and hopeless.  They are not allowed to leave without special permssion and are pretty much Prisoners within Bethlehem.  He explained that yesterday there was a curfew in effect for looting and burning and many of the shops still had not reopened.   I was definitely stared at and pointed at.   Naif took me to Manger Square where I visited the church of the Nativity where Jesus was born...it is the old known church.  He showed me Rachels Tomb and the Shepherds field.   He asked if there was anything else I wanted to see...but I truly felt apprehensive andnervous with ski masked people running around and not a tourist in site and requested he escort me back to the crossing.   I paid him $15 and made the journey back to the Israeli side.  Naif said that in the last 5 years the situation has really deteriorated and is really very unsafe for me to be there.

I felt very relieved to get back to Jerusalem.  I then wanted to make arrangements for tomorrow activities so I took care of that and then went shopping and had a very late lunch.   I think tonight...I will try to rest early as I have a long trip planned tomorrow to Masada, Dead Sea, Qumran, Ein Gedi National Park and the Judean Desert topped off with a mud bath and floating in the dead sea...the lowest place on earth  (about 1200 feet below sea level)

After it is all said and done I am very happy I went to Bethlehem...partly because I wanted to go for historical/spiritual reasons but it opened my eyes and better helped me understand the Palestinian point of view and what there life is like in the West Bank.