So, I went back more than three or four of Greg's posts, and I couldn't find anything specific to respond to, other than some he said/he said squabbling that I don't want to be sucked into again. It's really hard to find anything factual in Greg's posts - and when I challenge him to make a specific point, he just says to look above to his previous unspecific posts. One would think that if he had said something specific that I could respond to, he could copy-paste it when I asked for it.

And I don't know what the hell Jim is talking about. No, I haven't been to Knesset meetings or visited Israeli prisons, but I've read a considerable amount about them and do not have a favorable impression. It would be good to have a factual discussion of those things. I wonder if Jim would like to tell us of his personal experiences.

I've read a lot of unfavorable things about the Palestinian government, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much good they have accomplished.

I couldn't take pictures of the wall or of Israeli soldiers when I was there. Our Armenian guide said the Israelis have cameras everywhere, and they take action against people who photograph soldiers or military installations or the Wall. We had to go through a checkpoint at the Wall to get into Bethlehem from Jerusalem. The Wall was stark and ominous on the Israeli side, and covered with clever graffiti on the Bethlehem side. One made reference to Trump birthing a twin wall in the U.S.

My main impression of Israeli soldiers, was that they were awfully young - most looked to be about 20 years old, and I don't recall seeing any soldiers who looked older than 25. During the demonstration at Damascus Gate, maybe 30 young Arab women were sitting on the amphitheatre seats together, chanting anti-Trump slogans and having a good time. I wish I could have sat there with them. You'll see in my photos that the soldiers were dragging two or three young men away. I didn't see what the young men had done, if anything. There was a bit of struggling, but I didn't notice anything particularly abusive. Seemed like the same thing I've seen at demonstrations in the U.S. - demonstrators resisting, and officers dragging them away. I did talk to one or two soldiers and they were polite and helpful. The Palestinian soldiers were much friendlier and more talkative and relaxed.

Our drive from Jericho through the Jordan Valley was through Palestinian territory, so we had to go through a checkpoint when we turned off toward Nazareth. Our guide told us to say we had been in Jerusalem and had not stayed in Bethlehem. Otherwise, the soldiers would inspect all our baggage and we'd be delayed for an hour. So, two young soldiers got on the bus at the checkpoint. They checked the passport of one person at the front of the bus, and then went all the way to the back of the bus to wake up an Irish friend of mine who was the only one sleeping. Seemed to me to be petty harassment, just showing off their authority. But after that, they let us go on. It was dark, so I could not see if there was a wall connected to the checkpoint buildings there. Aljazeera (click) has an interesting page on the wall. Wikipedia has some good pictures, like the ones I was too chicken to take....

-Joe-