I got along well with Palestinians and Israelis as long as I didn't allow myself to get dragged into an argument with store owners who'd occasionally want me to give them my opinion on the subject matter of one side or the other. I never saw people who wanted to argue their point as much as Jerusalem shop owners in the Old City. At first, I had a hard time figuring out whether they were Jews or Palestinians. All I knew was that they were upset. When they were speaking English, it was even harder to tell who they were. They all seemed hard pressed to have someone hear them out. The more I empathized with them, the louder they got. I always made sure I wasn't wearing something that identified with one side or the other...
Usually when I went to the traditional holy places in the Old City, I'd run into one or more tour groups from America, England or Germany. Their guides were always explaining details about the significance of a particular location. Usually I'd learn more than what I already knew by listening in, but I didn't feel comfortable hanging around a large group of tourists. I felt much more at ease traveling by myself. When ever I was some place that didn't feel, or look quite right, I was free to go somewhere else. Even though it'd been several years since Vietnam, my basic instincts at staying alive where people carried guns were still pretty good.
It was fun and adventuresome going into places where tour groups didn't go. I enjoyed talking with shop owners and haggling over the price of something I wanted to buy. Even the young Palestinian boys in the Old City, selling large doughnut sized pieces of bread from a wooden cart, seemed to enjoy it when I tried to bargain with them. They'd always give me a good deal if I was creative at trying to get them to bring the price down. Saying a few words in Arabic helped, but they were usually the ones who ended the transaction with a grin... After visiting places in the Old City practically every other day for a couple of months, I'd begun to feel as though I was one of the local citizens. I wasn't a rich tourist, that's for sure. I barely had enough money for food as it was. There were a lot of times when I wished I could go into a nice restaurant and dole out the cash for a costly meal...
The Israeli tour guides, which are always Pro-Israel, always made sure they didn't emphasize significant places relating to Jesus, or anything relating to the Palestinians. When it came to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, it was always spoken of as the City of David, rather than Bethlehem. It took me awhile to realize that even though a lot of Christians and non-Christians alike are funding the country of Israel with billions of dollars every year, Israel which is a Jewish state, doesn't want to give any importance to things pertaining to Jesus. How ironic, I thought. I eventually grew to understand what my friend from Colorado was talking about when he said that the Christian Embassy tells Christian tourists not to preach the Gospel in the streets of Jerusalem. After a few days of getting acquainted, he shared with me an experience he had the first time he was there that exemplifies the anti-Christian spirit of orthodox Jews in Jerusalem.
He said the first time he had gone to Israel, during the second day of verbally sharing the Gospel to the public in downtown Jerusalem, (New Jerusalem, not the Old City) several orthodox Jews dragged him into a building and beat him up. They'd beaten him up so badly that he had to be hospitalized. He'd been kicked so many times in the stomach that it gave him a hernia. His face and body was also badly bruised. It shows that times for Christians really haven't changed much since Jesus was crucified a couple thousand years ago. For some reason, the news media here in the States, never seems to mention how opposed to Christianity the Jewish State of Israel is. Anyway, he returned home to the States to heal, and two years later he was back in Israel once again, preaching to the public, but not in downtown Jerusalem...
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