Jerusalem and Bethlehem

Just a brief word on the Messianic Jewish rabbi whose daughter was being “courted.” On the ship, I was reading Hannah Rosin’s book, “God’s Harvard.” It’s about religious rightwing kids who are homeschooled. They go to college at a place called Patrick Henry College, in D.C. Fundamentalist homeschooled children don’t date. They court. When the guy whose table I left was talking about courtship, it caught my attention, because I was reading about this very thing. You can’t ask a girl out, in this milieu. If your intentions are towards marriage, you have to ask the girl’s father for permission to “court” her. It seems demeaning from my perspective. A daughter is a piece of property who can’t make her own decisions, she is passed like chattel from father to husband.

After spending the morning in Jerusalem, we went to Bethlehem, in the West Bank. We passed through a border fence. This might have been a bigger deal for people who don’t live in southern California. Just south of San Diego, we have this environmentally disastrous border wall. Everywhere you drive you are stopped at check points by the Border Patrol to make sure you are not traveling with immigrants. In Israel, they have built a border wall. The Palestinians are treated the same way America treats immigrants from Mexico. The rhetoric is the same. In both cases, there is a wall that ruins the environment and causes needless hardship. The borders are defended with guns. I don’t have any answers about the immigration debate in this country. I agree with Thom Hartman that the problem is not illegal immigrants but illegal employers. The situation is not completely analogous in Israel.

In Bethlehem we visited the Church of the Nativity. Of all the churches we visited, I found this the most interesting. It was the oldest. The Eastern Orthodox sanctuary dates from the 5th century C.E. There are old mosaics on the floor. This church, unlike so many others, wasn’t destroyed in the Muslim conquest or the Crusades. Arab invaders understood that the church honored the wise men, who were from the East. The soldiers respected the Christians’ tribute to the Magi, who were from Persia.

The door to the Orthodox sanctuary was so low that you had to bend to get in (even someone as short as me!). This was either to prevent soldiers from riding their horses inside the church during wars, or alternately, to make sure people bowed upon entering a holy place. There were icons on the walls, and the church was lit by numerous hanging lanterns and candles. Our guide was a Palestinian Christian.
The Catholic sanctuary was next to the old Orthodox church, and was built over the grotto of St. Jerome. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, working in a cave. He felt holier working close to the place where Jesus may have been born. We didn’t see the actually grotto where Jesus was born: the line was too long. The “Jerusalem Syndrome” is when people go crazy in the Holy Land. Well, the woman from Mexico who had a tantrum because the bus wouldn’t stop for her to shop, had a complete breakdown when our guide said there wasn’t time to visit the grotto of Jesus’ birth. She claimed to be devout, but had no qualms about interrupting worshippers in the Orthodox sanctuary with her screaming and crying. I haven’t seen a tantrum like that since my nieces were 5. I was glad that she wasn’t American, but her episode was conducted in English as well as Spanish, so the distinction between American and Mexican was probably lost on the worshippers staring at her.

The two days in Israel passed quickly. I’ve been told that in Israel, things are more sane in Tel Aviv, a large, secular city on the Mediterranean coast. I was put off by the racism of our first guide. I was discouraged by the disparity of living standards between Israelis and Palestinians. I can’t believe that Palestinians are dirty, lazy, and violent, any more than I believe those things to be true about Mexicans. I don’t think anyone is safer when a wall blocks people’s access to their crops. I was uncomfortable with the hyper-religiosity in Israel. But what did I expect? It is a country for religious pilgrims.

The right wing in Israel, which is in control with Netanyahu, uses the same anti-Arab, anti-Muslim rhetoric used by George Bush. Bush’s use of terms like “crusade” didn’t help American-Muslim relations. In both Israel and America, the right combines religion and politics. Israel is full of Catholic churches, and there are a lot of monks and nuns. Veneration, prayer and study are noble goals for any individual, but they are of little help to the larger society. I wonder if things would be different in Israel if the churches turned in to schools or hospitals. Could the Catholic church broker peaceful relations between Israelis and Palestinians?

We humans are genetically wired to be tribal. For 250,000 years,we lived in small hunter-gatherer bands. We believe our society, our family, our religion is the best. This has been necessary for the survival of the species. We have fought for our little groups. But this tribal chauvinism no longer serves human society. We have to find the discipline and self-control to keep from being parochial. We can no longer act like our religion or our nation is better than anyone else’s. For the past 15,000 years, we have responded to conflict with violence. It doesn’t work. Violence begets more violence. In Israel, as in America, it is past time to try a new way of dealing with others. This is the era when good will and tolerance must prevail, or our species will self-destruct, and destroy the planet with us.

More about Israel-- Jerusalem

The first day in Israel had been disturbing. The right wing talk of the guide was less than helpful. Sadly, what made Israel, at least this day, seem so much like southern California was the feeling that I’d inadvertently turned on American talk radio. The guide’s anti- Palestinian rhetoric was delivered in the international language of hate. It was obvious to any observer that the Palestinians don’t enjoy the same standard of living as the Israelis. Most Israelis have had the opportunity to travel, and have benefited from Western secular education. They are heavily subsidized by American relatives and sympathizers. There is no AIPAC for Palestinians. In some cases, Palestinian communities have no access to electric power or clean water. It was hard to see the Israelis as the underdogs.

I’m sure the guide had reasons for hating Palestinians. They aren’t all saints and victims. The Goldstone report, which I read as objective reality, accuses Palestinians in Gaza of war crimes. After this first day in Israel, I was pessimistic about the country. I am not a Middle East expert. I am not qualified to pass judgment. I can only say what I saw. If a lot of Israelis are as racist as our guide, and if many Palestinians are as well, then there is no hope for peace in Israel.

The next day in Jerusalem was better. For one thing, we had a different guide. It was through the same agency, Patra, that the cruise ship contracted with. Both tours seemed geared toward devout Catholics. I encourage anyone who plans on travelling to Israel to do better research than I did, and find a tour geared towards particular interests. It is possible that most people who visit Israel want a religiously-directed tour.

Jerusalem was lovely. We stopped on the Mount of Olives, and had a panoramic view of the Old City. It was a wash of golden brown. It’s easy to why someone called it “Jerusalem the Golden.” We stopped at the Church of the Agony, also called the Church of the Twelve Nations. Twelve countries financed its construction, built on Gethsemane, the spot where Jesus was betrayed. We saw the old Jewish Cemetery, where rabbis and holy men of the ages are buried. From there we went to the walled city. Our first visit was to the Wailing Wall.

The Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall, is the sole remnant of Herod’s temple. The devout believe it is the closest place on earth to the Divine Presence. Men and women go to different areas to pray; you wrote down prayer requests on a scroll of paper and push it between the bricks. It was very moving. Anything more I say about it will sound trite or maudlin.

We walked through the narrow walls of the city, past numerous cramped market stalls. Catholics have the Stations of the Cross, a tradition not shared by the Eastern Orthodox or Protestants. We passed stations five through twelve, and went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was built outside the city walls, over the site where Jesus was crucified by the Romans. The church is broken up into chapels, each of which is owned by a different Christian sect. There is the rock where tradition says Jesus’ body was prepared for burial, and a grotto some believe was Jesus’ tomb.

The reverential aura was broken by a loud mouth woman from Mexico who kept asking, “Is this a church or a mosque?” There were crosses and pictures of Jesus everywhere, and she thought it was a mosque? The various priests and clergy of the various sects apparently get in to fist fights over access to the chapels, our guide told us. They show these tussles on Israeli television: it’s Israel’s version of reality TV. In fact, there is so much acrimony between the Catholics and Orthodox and Protestants and Coptics, the keys to the building are kept by a Muslim family.

This same Mexican woman kept demanding our guide stop so she could shop. The itinerary was full, and we were slated for shopping in Bethlehem. This gal was not amused by being told to wait. We ate lunch at Pavilion, a great big buffet diner. There was more great Israeli food, more yummy brisket and roasted chicken.

People write about the “Jerusalem syndrome.” Each year, a given number of tourists who visit Israel have a breakdown, and believe they are the Messiah or a prophet. As lovely as Jerusalem is, the air is heavy with religiosity. At the first table where I sat in the cafeteria, I was accosted by a Messianic rabbi. He was telling folks that the problem with Israel was the same as the problem with America: the left wing. Lefties, according to this jerk, have deliberately sabotaged both Israel and America by allowing immigrants in. I took my plate and moved on. Before I walked off, he was talking about his daughter’s courtship.

(to be continued)