Holyland Hotel Jerusalem

... tomb lay.

The entire platoon of what was now 95 soldiers then made its way to the Western Wall. I had been here a number of times before in the past few months. In fact, on my second weekend after arriving in Israel, I distinctly recall the amazing feeling I felt when I came here alone and not part of a Taglit group as done two years before. By the way, this is exactly why I am writing these blog entries. When I finish writing this entry quickly, I am going to go back and read ...

... settlers.









I know it may be hard to really understand what I'm talking about, but I'm pretty sure Hebron is as close as it gets to hell on Earth ... if you need any further proof of how terrible the place is, take a look at this graffiti ...












Settlements in the news TODAY
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... The city built up on this cliff was fascinating, and there is an outstanding view of the Red Sea and surrounding valley. After Masada, we went back up the Dead Sea shore to Qumran, where they discovered the Dead Sea scrolls. We learned about the men of the Jewish sect "the Essenes" who lived there, and spent a lot of time copying scripture. They then hid the scripture in clay vessels. Of course, it's so dry there that ...

... as they are called now. The one good thing was that last night when we finally got back to the hotel, a bunch of us ordered cheeseburgers in the lounge area which would have not been possible in a jewish hotel which all serve kosher so meat and dairy cannot be served together. We stopped for lunch at a bazaar that was really crowded because it is friday, and chabat (jewish sabbath) starts at dusk so everyone has to be home and prepare the chabat meal friday evening. We ...

... a driver takes you right to the gate in either a Porsche SUV or a Mercedes S-class. By the time you arrive at the aircraft, practically everyone else has boarded. Just like I once saw the Yankees board a plane at LaGuardia, except they were brought planeside in busses. This is beyond any other airline's First Class lounge experience (except maybe for Qatar Airways in Doha...I'll get to that in a later blog). The flight itself ...

... celebrating en masse by eating all kinds of snacks. Jewish man were all dressed in black with big black hats and going to the Wailing Wall. And of course there was a whole load of Christian tourists, mainly Europeans, going around. A lot of them were priests in brown tunique and nuns dressed in black. The muslims were at the mosque and out of sight most of the time. The whole time I was there I was unable to visit because it remained closed. I kept ...

... once I am back in the States. He cannot investigate further since my insurance will probably not cover it. He prescribes me some gel and some Tylenol with codein. My friend decides that we still can make it to the Palestinian Pottery shop. She parks on the curb (I have not done something like that since I left France 14 years ago!) right in front of the shop and takes me inside what looks like a pottery museum but is in fact a showroom. I now know where all her ...